MCC Tennis Falls Short At Region 23 Tournament

From School Reports

The Meridian Community College men and women’s tennis teams competed for the first time in several years in the combined NJCAA MACJC State/Region XXIII Tennis Championships over the weekend at Mississippi Gulf Coast.  The field consisted of ten teams:  Copiah Lincoln Community College, East Central Community College, Hinds Community College, Holmes Community College, Jones County Junior College, Itawamba CC, Meridian, Mississippi Gulf Coast CC, Northeast MS Community College, and Northwest Mississippi Community College.  
         

The Meridian women were trying for a seventh consecutive Region XXIII championship,  but fell short by several points.  Jones County Junior College won the Region XXIII event with 31 points, Meridian scored 22, and Gulf Coast had 21.  These three teams will advance to the national championships. 

Other results were as follows:  Itawamba -18, Hinds-10, Northwest-10, ECCC-3,  Northeast-2, Co-Lin-1 and Holmes-0.  At number one singles, Mallory Davis picked up two points in the quarterfinals, with a win over Holmes CC 6-1, 6-0 before losing to the number one seed, Krista Eely from ICC6-1, 6-3. At number two singles, Meridian’s Jennie Smith could not pull out the win over Hind’s Brittany DeCamp 7-5, 6-3, so MCC picked up no points at the two singles.  At number three singles, Meridian High graduate, Madison Gillette, picked up All-State and All-Region honors by taking the win in the championship match against Brenda Hegwood of Jones in three sets. At number four singles, freshman, Caroline Terry, pulled out a huge win in the semifinals against Jones County 6-1, 6-3 before falling to Gulf Coast in the finals.

At number five singles, sophomore, Molly Davis, made it to the finals with wins over Co-Lin and Gulf Coast before falling to JCJC in the finals.  At number six singles, Taylor White, who is definitely the most improved player on the season, picked up wins in the quarterfinals and semis to advance to the finals.  She lost in straight sets to sophomore, Brooke Martin, from Jones County.  Meridian’s duo of Mallory Davis/Jennie Smith was put out in the semifinals by the eventual champions, Krista Eely/Taylor Patterson from ICC.  They had a bye the first round and defeated Holmes to make it to the semis.  The two doubles team of Madison Gillette/Molly Davis had a bye the first round, defeated Northwest 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals but lost to Buker/Rose in the semifinals.  At number three doubles, freshmen, Caroline Terry/Taylor White lost in the championship match to Jones County. 
       

The Meridian men placed a distant second behind Itawamba who took all courts except number three doubles when Jones County’s three doubles refused to let them have a clean sweep.  Itawamba placed first with 35 points, Meridian was second with 23, Jones County had 17, Northwest 12, Gulf Coast 11, CoLin 9, ECCC 3, Holmes 3, Northeast 3, and Hinds 0. In men’s play, Meridian’s Kevin Millet, who was seeded number one lost in the championship match to a player he had beaten on Monday, April 20.  Pinkney of ICC took the win over Millet.  Millet had won matches over Jones, and CoLin, a match that went three sets.  At two singles, TJ Carter, who had not played in the singles lineup until the last couple of matches, took a win over Hinds CC before falling to the number two seed, Joseph Shiedler, Northwest CC in the quarters.  At number three, Chris Mallette, a former West Lauderdale player, lost in the semis when he began to cramp in the second.  Chris was up 5-3 but lost the second set and then lost the third.  ICC won the third flight.  Judson Watson cruised to the finals with wins over Co-Lin 6-0, 6-1 and Jones 6-1, 6-0.  He won the first set over ICC but split sets. 

At number five singles, Meridian’s Reed Wade lost to ICC’s Joseph Summers in the finals.  The six singles, Christian Jackson fell to ICC’s Drew Ballard in the finals.  A turning point in the outcome came at number three doubles, when TJ Carter/Reed Wade were seeded four so faced the number one seed ICC in the quarterfinals.  Meridian lost but picked up two points with a win in the semis over Northeast.  Meridian’s number one doubles team of Kevin Millet/Chris Mallette cruised into the finals with wins over Co-Lin 6-0, 6-1 and Jones County 6-1, 6-0.  The duo fought hard but fell short to ICC’s McElwaine/Pinkney. 

The biggest surprise of the tournament was Meridian’s number two team, Judson Watson/Christian Jackson, who picked up the slack when put into the lineup two weeks before tournament time.  The defeated Northeast in the first round 6-2, 6-3.  They, then, pulled the biggest upset of the tournament with wins over Jones’ twos in three sets 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.  They defeated Northwest in the semis 6-4, 6-1.  They fell in the finals to ICC’s McElwain/Coins. Mark Easley of Jones County was selected the Region XXIII Coach of the year for the women, while Gary Bourgeois was voted as the MACJC Women’s Coach of the Year.  Paul Johnson of ICC received the Region XXIII and MACJC Men’s Coach of the Year honors
        

 Both teams will advance to the national tournament. The women’s tournament will be held in Tyler, Texas at Tyler Junior College May 3-9.  The men will travel to Plano, Texas May 10-16; the host site is Collin Community College.  
         

According to MCC head coach Wanda McPhail, “Both teams played extremely hard.  Unfortunately, several players had trouble with the heat as this year’s weather patterns did not allow players the opportunity to get used to the heat in matches that lasted sometimes over two hours.  We just did not win some of the matches we needed to to bring home the championships.  The players represented our school in a positive manner.”