Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/8/16. McCallie School's George Brant plays Mountain Brook's Leo Styslinger during the annual Rotary Tennis Tournament at the Baylor School tennis courts on April 8, 2016. The Chattanooga Rotary Tennis Tournament is in its milestone 60th year, and the A division teams are poised to provide an exciting finish, fitting for the tournament's rich history and tradition.
Neither the boys' nor the girls' team leader escaped Friday with more than a three-point advantage with plenty of matches left to crown the champions today at Baylor.
St. Xavier, seven-time defending Kentucky state champion, leads the A boys with 13 points and will look to regain the top spot after being denied a three-peat by a furious Baylor rally in doubles last year. Baylor and Mountain Brook have 11.5 and 10.5 points, with a surprising Montgomery Bell Academy squad at 9.5.
"This is one of the best high school tennis tournaments in the Southeast," said Jack Webb, who co-chairs the event with Ward Nelson. "We are very fortunate to have eight of the top boys' teams and eight of the top girls' teams all at one site. Several players here will go on to play Division I college tennis, and past champions have gone on to be Southern champions, national champions and even world champions."
A new A-1 singles champion will be crowned, with MBA's George Harwell and Mountain Brook's Peter Hartman left to duke it out after Harwell upset top seed Drew Singerman from St. Xavier. MBA was the last school to hold the No. 1 singles title before St. Xavier's Brandon Lancaster won in 2014 and 2015.
Baylor has finalists in Patrick Toomey and Brandon Kali in A-3 and A-4. The rest of the finalists belong to St. Xavier, Mountain Brook and MBA.
Baylor has all three of its boys' doubles teams in the semifinals this morning and will face Mountain Brook in all three. The Red Raiders know the importance of doubles, as they swept the finals last year to jump ahead of St. Xavier for the win.
Baylor's girls are also in a tight race, leading Webb School of Knoxville 13 to 10.
"This just makes it all the more exciting," Webb said. "Some years a team runs away with it, but when it's close it gets tense and the players and fans are enthusiastic. It's not life and death, but it's exhilarating."
Baylor's girls won the tournament from 2011 to 2014 before being dethroned by McCracken last year. McCracken has 8.5 points, but two-time defending A-1 singles champion Michelle McKamey is vying for her third title.
Baylor's Lauren Carelli, Ashton Jenne and Lolly Mooney will play for singles titles, and all three Baylor doubles teams are through to the finals.
GPS and McCallie have 4.5 and 6 points, respectively, in their divisions. Corinne Spann is a singles finalists for the Bruisers, and both teams have two doubles teams in the semifinals.
Notre Dame is competing in both the boys' and girls' B divisions at McCallie and GPS, and the Chattanooga Christian girls' team also is in the B division.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com