The biggest indication of a college program's growth is evidenced in the quality of the players that program is capable of recruiting and signing. In that case, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis program is in really good shape.
Kayla Jones, who played No. 1 singles for the Mocs during the 2015 season, will be playing in two championship matches today in the Tennessee Valley Open Championships at Manker Patten. She's paired with UTC teammate and former Baylor School standout Samantha Caswell in the women's open doubles final and with Ankit Chopra in the mixed open doubles final.
The men's singles final pits University of Georgia All-American Nathan Pasha against University of Florida rising junior Maxx Lipman.
Caswell and Jones, along with Mocs teammates Kelsey Coots and Katie Polk and four-star signee Sydney Patton, played in the four-day event. It's been another opportunity for the group to grow closer.
"It's been good to hang out with the team again," Coots said Saturday afternoon. "The tournament seems stronger this year - there are a lot of the Alabama players here, including the NCAA champions, which is awesome. I wish we had a chance to play them."
Alabama's Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen, who will meet in this morning's open singles final as the top two seeds, are the two-time defending NCAA doubles champions. They'll later face Caswell and Jones in the TVOC doubles final.
Jones, the fourth seed in singles, gave Jansen a battle in falling 7-5, 7-6 in the semifinals.
Jones, Coots, Polk and Alison Storie will make up the Mocs' senior class in 2015-16. They've won 54 matches in their three-year careers, with a Southern Conference tournament runner-up finish in 2014 to their credit. The additions of East Tennessee State - which defeated UTC in the tournament semifinals this past season - and Mercer have strengthened the level of play in the conference, but the Mocs intend to take another step when the new season begins.
"One of the best parts about all of us coming together is that we've grown close," Polk said. "It's also helped our tennis get better that the four of us have been so close and pushing to do better. Hopefully that translates to the new freshmen coming in to where they'll want to get better, because we're gunning for conference next year."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.