MCC Lady Eagles to host State/Region tennis

Meridian Community College will host the Women's MACJC State/NJCAA Region 23 Tennis Tournament today through Saturday.

Ten community college teams from across the state will compete at Northeast Tennis Center. The first round of singles and doubles will begin this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. The tournament will continue Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. and continue throughout the day.

Tournament semifinals will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Besides MCC, the other community college teams competing are Jones County Junior College, Hinds, Southwest Mississippi, East Central, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Copiah-Lincoln, Holmes, Itawamba and Pearl River. The top three teams will advance to the national junior college tennis tournament in Tuscon, Ariz., May 2-7.

"We have a great opportunity to return to the national tournament this year," said Wanda McPhail, MCC tennis coach. The team has made six straight appearances to the tournament."

The Lady Eagles sport a 17-4 record and are expected to be the number one seed in all nine brackets of the state tournament today. The team's number one singles and doubles player, sophmore Alycia Le Merle from Melbourne, Australia, will enter the tournament undefeated for the season.

"We also have former Meridian High School standout Kelly Sterling in number two singles and doubles," McPhail said. "She had a fantastic showing last year at the national 5A mixed doubles."

MCC won the state tournament for four straight years from 2003 to 2006. Itawamba took the top spot last year, but the Lady Eagles hope to reclaim the crown in their final MACJC state tourney.

"We hope to get the title back this weekend," McPhail said. "Nothing would be better than to win it at home."