NICHOLASVILLE — Haley White and Mallory Conrad were dealt a tough draw to open up the KHSAA girls’ doubles state tennis tournament.
The Mason County duo, despite being champions of the 10th Region, drew the Third Region champion of Owensboro Catholic’s duo of Sarah Englert/Ashley Fulkerson, seeded No. 9 coming into the tournament.
A slow start plagued White and Conrad, dropping the match 1-6, 3-6 to the Lady Aces doubles team.
After dropping the first five games of the match that included some unforced errors and jitters, the Lady Royals duo started to settle in by taking three of the next five games, but the serve of Englert and the consistency of Fulkerson on volleys proved to be too much on Thursday at Top Seed Tennis in Nicholasville.
“I think the entire first set their nerves got to them,” Mason County coach Matt Jolley said. “The girls’ that they played were very consistent and hit heavy balls that when they bounced they’d just explode off the ground and you’re trying to hit them around your shoulders and you’re not moving your feet, you’re a little timid, a little nervous and you’re just not going to make the shots you normally can. But they were a really good team and they’re a nine-seed for a reason.”
After getting to deuce in the opening game of the match, White and Conrad failed to get above 30 in any other game before getting a game at 0-5 in the first set. Englert and Fulkerson closed out the set from there to take it 6-1.
White and Conrad would try and regroup, getting guidance from Jolley and assistant coach Andy Clarke in between sets.
“Just told them to settle down. Make them hit balls because the entire first set we were hitting in the net, we were hitting long, weren’t making first serves, double-faulting and missing easy volleys. All they had to do was get one, maybe two balls back in play,” Jolley said. “Coach Clarke mentioned something about what Brad Gilbert said, one of the greatest players, has a book called ‘Winning Ugly’ and sometimes you just have to do that. You jump ball them, hit it short, hit it long, hit it hard, hit it slow. We tried to implement some of that and it seemed to work, but credit to them, they were really good.”
Conrad held her serve to start the second set, momentum starting to swing on the Lady Royals side.
“I know the first set didn’t look as good, but getting to deuce in that first game really gave us some confidence knowing we could play with them. After we calmed our nerves and started relaxing and having some fun like we normally do, things were a lot better,” White said.
The Lady Aces took the next two games to regain the lead before the Lady Royals duo broke the serve of Fulkerson to even things back up at 2-2. With the Lady Aces leading at 3-2 in the second set, a long volley at 40-30 that lasted nearly a minute long eventually ended in the Lady Aces favor to take a 4-2 lead.
White held serve to get it to 4-3 before Englert’s strong serve that included two aces in the game quickly made it 5-3.
The Lady Royals duo would continue to keep things tight, getting to deuce on the final game before Englert and Fulkerson closed out the match.
“I was proud of how they handled themselves and fought back in the second set. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first set,” Jolley said.
The match ends a three-year run for White and Conrad that included two region titles and a runner-up finish in regional play as Conrad is a senior.
“Mostly this has built our friendship. I can call Haley my best friend and I really have a tennis family. It’s going to be hard to leave them behind,” Conrad said.
With White losing her doubles partner, she’ll now either have to find another doubles partner or move to singles play for her senior season.
“Not only our friendship, but when I first picked up tennis I was just kind of playing and was just there. But playing with Mallory really helped myself as a tennis player and really pushed myself,” White said.
No matter what happens, the friendship built and the duo helped lead the Lady Royals to back-to-back team regional titles as well in ‘17 and ‘18.
“Great run for them. We’re really going to miss Mallory, she has the cleanest volleys on the team, boys’ or girls’ team,” Jolley said. “She’s a competitor and hope she plays in college. Haley still has one more year and we’ll need to figure out what we want to do with her. Hopefully we can get some more time with her in the offseason, but she plays so many sports it’s tough to get her so we’ll have to see.”
Englert and Fulkerson advanced to the second round to take on Clay County’s Emma Rader/Isabella Sester later on Thursday, a match they won 6-0, 6-1, to move on to Friday’s Round of 16 against Lafayette’s Michayla Gatsos/Helena Weiss.
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