McCallie won the boys’ team championship and GPS finished second in the girls’ competition Saturday at the Chattanooga Rotary tennis tournament at Baylor School.
The Blue Tornado swept all three doubles championships and won the team title with 26 points. Mountain Brook finished second with eight points.
Vestavia Hills edged GPS for the girls’ team championship by one point, winning the crown with 19 points. St. Paul’s finished third with 10 points.
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Staff Photo by Patrick Smith -- GPS’s Sarah Evans returns the ball during girls tennis doubles at Baylor on Saturday. Evans won the No. 2 singles title and, with Claire Bartlett, the No. 1 doubles title.
Vestavia Hills’ Caroline Faught and Lauren Levant clinched the title with an 8-1 No. 2 doubles win in a semifinal over the Bruisers’ Cady Jones and Millie Earhart. GPS led Vestavia Hills by one at that point, but the winner of the No. 2 doubles match received two points. The St. Paul’s team left the tournament earlier in the day, forfeiting its spot in the final for the doubles championship.
“Our girls played really well against good competition,” GPS coach Sue Barlett said. “These Alabama teams were really strong, and we’re glad they were here because we want really good matches this early in the season. I was glad to see our girls incorporated a lot of things from practice into their matches.”
The Bruisers’ Claire Bartlett won the No. 1 singles title with an 8-2 win over Vestavia Hills’ Taylor Lindsey. Bartlett, a University of Virginia signee, lost to Lindsey last summer in a USTA Southern juniors tournament but learned from the experience to earn the win on Saturday.
“I kept it deeper this time, because last time I kept it short and I got ran around a lot,” Bartlett said. “It’s weird that I’ll be going away, because I’ve been at GPS my whole life, so it makes this tournament with the team really special for me.”
The Bruisers’ Sarah Evans took home the No. 2 singles title and Earhart fought back from a 5-0 deficit to win the No. 6 singles championship. Bartlett and Evans combined for the No. 1 doubles title, while Annie Holley and Meredith Morrow won the No. 3 doubles crown.
For McCallie, Chris Schlabach and Wes Nelson won the No. 1 doubles championship, while J.P. McLemore and David Henry claimed the No. 2 doubles championship. The Blue Tornado’s Thomas Fanjoy and Sawyer Voges took home the No. 3 doubles crown. On Friday, McCallie claimed five of six singles titles.
