Signal Mountain's Jason Morris leaves the ground for a shot during the No. 1 doubles match with Zach Brown against Chattanooga Christian's Nick Baxendale and Joe Sliga Thursday at CCS.Signal Mountain tennis coach Renato Mizutani didn't give his boys' team a chance to celebrate its first-ever District 7-A/AA championship Thursday. Instead, he made the Eagles run.
"They're going to need their conditioning for the postseason," Mizutani said. "We're going to run today, tomorrow and Saturday."
The Eagles (12-2, 2-0) were able to lay claim to the title with a sound 6-3 win over Chattanooga Christian. The Lady Chargers won the girls' match, defeating Signal 7-2. The Eagles and the Notre Dame girls will be representing the district in the team postseason tournament, which starts May 8 against the representatives from District 8.
The individual tournament begins Monday at the Champions Club.
Jason Morris, Zack Brown and Micajah Tucker had singles wins for the Signal boys, who swept the doubles matches.
"We've always been close [to winning the district], but I think it's haunted them that we haven't been able to win it yet," Mizutani said. "The guys had a chance last year, but were a little too nervous in a match against Notre Dame. This year they've kept working hard and had the confidence to win the match handily."
The Lady Chargers (8-4, 1-1) were able to bounce back from a tough loss to Notre Dame on Tuesday with singles wins from Hannah Henry, Caraline Redburg, Sarah Smith and Lizzy Hoffecker. They also had a sweep in doubles.
"We played Signal at the beginning of the year, and I knew they would be tougher this time around," CCS coach Laura Henry said. "We had to really get up for this match after the loss to Notre Dame, but the girls stepped up and played well today."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6311. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.