The Chattanooga area was represented well Friday in the girls' DecoTurf High School Tennis Team Championships. Baylor won its first two matches and Girls Preparatory School won its first in the A Division, and Soddy-Daisy split its matches in the B Division.
Games were played at Baylor, GPS and the Champions Club. The DecoTurf boys' competition will come to town next weekend.
Soddy-Daisy was the first to play, as the Lady Trojans faced off against Duncan in the morning and fell 6-3 to the Oklahoma school. The Lady Trojans bounced back with a tight 5-4 win over Kentucky team Assumption.
"We played really well," Soddy-Daisy coach Mike Parker said. "We're doing things a little differently and they're buying in and giving good effort. Even against Duncan we lost some matches in tiebreakers, so it was close."
Soddy-Daisy took two of three doubles matches after splitting the singles matches to beat Assumption.
Baylor was the only local team to face an in-state opponent, beating Hutchison 6-3 in an afternoon matchup.
Although doubles, the Red Raiders' strong suit, usually starts a team match, they had to start with singles. Drew Hawkins, Ashton Jenne and Presley Thomas won the first three singles matches, but Baylor lost the next three and headed to doubles tied 3-3.
"We're traditionally very good at doubles -- we take pride in our doubles," Baylor coach Dustin Kane said. "We typically get ahead in doubles and head into singles more relaxed. But being tied going into doubles today allowed us not to be as tense as we could have been."
Baylor went on to sweep doubles to secure the win and swept doubles again in a 6-1 night win over Georgia school Cambridge.
GPS dominated Niceville, which made the trek from Florida, 8-1.
"This is a tough way to start the season, but we played well. I think we moved particularly well," said GPS coach Sue Bartlett. "Our No. 2 doubles team, (Jennie) McBrayer and (Analisa) Stratienko, was down 5-2 and came back to win 8-6, so that was a good win for two seniors."
In their late match, the Bruisers were swept in doubles by American Heritage from Florida and wound up losing 8-1.
"We've played in this tournament three or four years and done well every time we've played in it," Bartlett said. "It's a good wake-up call at the beginning of the season."
Baylor was up on Georgia school Cambridge 3-0, finishing the day undefeated in doubles.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.