ALEXANDRIA – Region reclaimed.
After winning the 10th Region girls’ doubles tennis tournament two years ago and falling in the final last year, Mason County’s Haley White and Mallory Conrad reclaimed the title with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Montgomery County’s Eden Covington and Kenley Grimes on Wednesday.
“They have had a good year. They haven’t played the entire season together. I was hoping to maybe try with Haley at No. 1 singles and see if we can go for the team title, and then we just had things happen and it couldn’t work out that way, so the best thing I could have done was put them back together. I knew they would make it far, I felt like they had a good shot at winning and they did,” said Mason County coach Matt Jolley.
“I felt like they were the better team last year, they just didn’t really keep their composure that well and they played a good team out of Harrison County, but yeah, I’m proud of how they played,” added Jolley. “They played with that chip all season and they definitely kept their foot on the gas pedal today.”
The two entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed and felt the pressure, but it quickly went away when Wednesday’s action started in the semifinals.
The duo didn’t drop a point in the first game of their semifinal match against Pendleton County’s Sadie Wright and Baleigh Tackett and quickly were up, 5-0. At 30-all, Conrad spiked two balls at the net to take the first set, before finishing off the match, 6-0, 6-0.
“I will say those girls had me a little on my toes. I was a little nervous. They put down the five and three seeds and I was like, ‘Dang, these girls are coming up!’ said Conrad. “We couldn’t take it lightly.”
Their momentum didn’t slow in the championship match, facing off with a team with plenty of momentum of their own. Covington and Grimes dropped the first set in their semifinal match to Campbell County’s Sydney Melton and McDowell, 7-5, before rallying from 5-2 down in the second set to come away with a 5-7, 7-5, 10-4 victory.
“We had played those girls several times, so we kind of knew what to expect and had an idea of how we needed to play and the level we needed to play,” said White. “The last time we played them we had an easy first set, then they got five straight games off of us at the second set.”
Conrad and White jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the championship match. The Montgomery County team had the advantage in the sixth game after a couple of mistakes from White, but her teammate settled her down with the help of Neil Diamond.
“I think that was when “Sweet Caroline” was playing and I think all she did was turn around and say the lyrics to me,” said White.
“Sometimes that’s how it rolls, though,” added Conrad. “We just say something goofy and then we get pumped and ready for the next point. That’s usually how it goes.”
They finished off the first set, 6-0, and went up 1-0 in the second set, before dropping their first game on the day. Conrad and White went up, 2-1, and got some advice from Jolley.
“I did very little technical coaching, which is what I would rather do,” said Jolley. “I didn’t really have to say, ‘Go down the line, or don’t hit it to the net girl.’ It was just, ‘Stay in the match, don’t let things outside start creeping into your minds’ and they did a really good job with that.”
Mason County’s team took the next four games to finish off the match, 6-0, 6-1, and walk away as 10th Region champions once again.
The Lady Royals finished as the runner-up in the tournament behind Conrad and White’s championship performance. They also had the doubles team of Kiersten Coleman and Autumn Benedict advance to the quarterfinals in doubles action, and Katie Swisshelm also fell in the quarterfinals in the singles bracket.
“It just goes to show every match matters. We fortunately got a pretty good draw, but even if you get a good draw you have to go out and play and you have to win those matches,” said Jolley. “I’m really happy for the girls. They competed well – all of them did for the tournament — and I’m happy that they were able to come away with this.”
Campbell County put on a show on their home court, claiming both the boys’ and the girls’ team titles for the tournament. It’s the Camels’ third straight title and the first ever for the Lady Camels.
Anderson McDowell claimed his third straight boys’ singles title, knocking off Harrison County’s Dason Herrington in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-0, and George Rogers Clark’s Tennyson Prater in the final, 6-0, 6-1. Prater beat Campbell County’s Luke Williams in the semifinals. Campbell County’s doubles team of Noah Bertsch and Nick Wittrock picked up a semifinal victory over George Rogers Clark’s Isaac Graham and Maxwell Clark before hanging on against Bourbon County’s Matthew Dampier and Jared Cote in the final, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
The Lady Camels were led by Natalie Smith, who claimed a 6-0, 6-1 victory over teammate Annika White in the championship match, a year after falling to Mason County’s Tessa Gray in the final.
The KHSAA State Tennis Championships are scheduled for May 30-June 1.
