MCC Tennis Set To Host USTA/ITA Championships

From School Reports

Meridian Community College will play host to six Mississippi Junior Colleges and one Alabama JUCO beginning Wednesday, September 16 as they host the USTA/ITA Southern Regional Junior College Championships. 

The tournament begins on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. with a mandatory coaches' meeting followed by men's play at 5:00 in the round of sixty-four singles matches.  The men's draw is very competitive. 

There are seven men's teams entered with 43 singles entrants and 20 doubles teams; schools participating on the men's side are Copiah Lincoln, East Central, Hinds, Holmes, Marion Military Institute (Alabama), Mississippi Gulf Coast and Meridian. MCC's freshman Jason Pimenta, who hails from New Zealand, is the number one seed going into the tournament with one win over MMI's Adam Bahney earlier in the fall. 

MGCCC sophomore, Sam Blackburn, who suffered one loss season as a freshman, will add to the mix as will freshman Harry Foster from MMI. On the men's doubles, Pimenta and partner Samuel Butler start the tournament as the number one seed after slipping by MMI's Foster/Andrew Wright in an early fall match.  Again, MGCCC's number one doubles team will bring a great deal of talent with Blackburn a part of that duo. Copiah Lincoln has a couple of returning sophomores who will be very competitive. It is really difficult to know what some of our freshmen will do as we have practiced only for about six weeks. 

On the girl's side there are only four teams competing, but the women, too, will be very competitive. MGCCC's, Pauline Estrada, ranked number 18 in Mexico comes in at the number one seed with Paige Gibson from Meridian getting the number two seed. The women's bracket truly can belong to anyone as all four teams have some really strong players.  ECCC's Kaley Bufkin will certainly be a factor as will Hind's Rachel Rhett.  In women's doubles, the duo of Estrada/Katie Robinson will be strong contenders for the solo spot to qualify for the National Small College Championships as will Gibson/Shelby Zachry, Meridian;  Bufkin/Chaney Mills, ECCC; and Rachel Rhett/Sophia Slusasz, Hinds. 

The JUCO tournament is not a flighted tournament.  It is a qualifying tournament for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships.  The male and female single's champion and the male and female double's champions will get a bid into this tournament which will be held in South Carolina October 14-18.