MCC Tennis Gears Up For 2015

From School Reports

The Meridian Community College Tennis program has released a great lineup of matches for the spring season that should provide for a competitive year. The Meridian men and women begin their season Friday, February 6 with a road trip to close rival, East Central Community College, with match time at 2:00 p.m. 

MCC has a strong contender for a state title in Shane Trebisky from Wichita Falls, Texas. Trebisky comes from a tennis background as his dad is a teaching pro, who was the first hired pro at Meridian’s Northeast Tennis Complex when it opened.  Trebisky’s mother played the number one line on the first team that was coached by McPhail at MCC.  After taking a couple of years off, he is back and very motivated.

Sophomore Judson Watson, who is a crafty player and a great athlete,  and Sophomore, Chris Mallette, an all –court player,  will challenge each other for the two and three spots this spring.  Both are dealing with injuries sustained during their soccer season at MCC.  Fighting over the four and five position will be freshman, Samuel Butler, from East Webster and Walt Harrington, a freshman from Houston High School.  Completing the lineup and dueling for the sixth position are freshman Reed Kasper from West Lauderdale, sophomore D’Quante Evans, and freshman Sean Grice from Quitman.  

Both teams return to action Saturday for their home opener against Faulkner State.  The MCC women who will be led by freshman local Lamar School graduate, Paige Gibson, will begin play at 10:00 a.m.

Meridian returns a strong group of sophomore women:  Jennifer Smith, who played two last season but is currently battling some foot problems, Caroline Terry and Taylor White.  These three ladies are vying for the top positions in the lineup with Paige Gibson. These ladies should give the women’s team the leadership it needs.  MCC freshman fighting for a spot in the lineup are local graduates Jami Daugherty from West Lauderdale and Brittany Allen from Clarksdale, Summer Stockstill, a graduate of Picayune who was a first semester soccer player for MCC,  and Alden Hartley from Clinton High School.   

The weekend of play brings four teams to Northeast Park. Other teams playing will be Jones County Junior College and Oxford Emory from Oxford, Georgia. The men take on Faulkner State men after a 2:00 match between Jones County Junior College and Oxford Emory men.  Sunday morning, the MCC men will play the Oxford Emory men. Meridian will travel to Hinds on Monday to complete the long weekend of play. 

The MCC teams will not get a breather after this long weekend. MCC is truly excited to play host to several teams the next weekend as well.  Seminole State out of Oklahoma brings in the big guns on February 13 in a match against Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College at 11:00 a.m.  Seminole has the number one ranked Junior College player in the nation, Guy Iradukunda. 

Guy won the JUCO division at the National Small College Championships held in October in South Carolina. He comes to Seminole from Burundi and at one time was ranked 71 in the ITF rankings.  His doubles’ partner, Ishmael Mzai, who arrived this semester on the Seminole campus, was also a Top 100 ITF ranked Junior.     Seminole’s team is ranked number five coming off the fall season.  The weekend finds six Top 20 JUCO teams in the nation playing at Northeast Tennis Center. Meridian’s own Shane Trebisky is ranked 19 after the fall season; Marion Military’s Kaiser DeLeon is ranked 18, so three top 20 single’s players will be showcased as well.

Another big weekend of play at Northeast Park will take place Feb. 27-March 1 when Meridian’s women play host to Hillsborough Community College from Tampa, Florida; Marion Military Institute, who has a top ten women’s singles player after the fall season; Snead State from Boaz, Alabama; and Mississippi teams ECCC, Meridian, and Hinds CC.  Then, in March, Meridian plays host to Seminole women the week of spring break.  Meridian men and women will face tough competition from Mississippi teams as well by playing Jones, Gulf Coast, Itawamba, Northwest, and Co-Lin.