MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Drew Hawkins' high school tennis career ended the way it should have. A win, an embrace of her opponent at the net and more hardware to take home with her.
The Baylor senior won her third consecutive Division II-AA state singles title Friday, defeating teammate Landie McBrayer 6-2, 6-1 at the Adams Tennis Center.
Hawkins became the eighth girl in TSSAA history to win three tennis state championships, and she joins Red Bank's Susan Hill (1975-77), Chattanooga Christian's Ellen Rogers (1999, 2001-02) and GPS's Stephanie Harris (2002, 04-05) and Claire Bartlett (2006-08) as the only area players to do so. She joins Hill and Bartlett in winning three in a row.
Baylor's Lauren Carelli and Lilly Mooney lost 6-3, 6-4 to Hutchison's Caroline Owen and Grace Anne Dunavent in the Division II-AA state doubles final, and St. Andrew's-Sewanee's Ester Yang fell 6-4, 6-1 to Knoxville Webb's Lauren Yoon in the Division II-A singles final.
"I'm proud of the girls," Baylor coach Dustin Kane said. "To have two of the girls in the singles final and have a team in the doubles finals as well, I feel that's a strong performance on their part. For Drew, it's awesome for her to get the team and the singles titles her senior year, and she's deserving of the result.
"In doubles we were totally in the match. We played with the right strategy, but they were tougher on us on points that were big. Kudos to them to be able to step up on those big points, because we get a couple of them and the pressure is on them, but they kept the pressure on us by winning those points."
Dunavent and Owen won eight out of 10 deuce points that would have swung games in Baylor's favor.
Hawkins was in control against the upstart McBrayer, who in her semifinal match had rallied from down a set and 5-2 in the second.
The Belmont signee ends her career with five state team championships and the three singles titles. She's one of two players in TSSAA history - Knoxville Webb's Anna Catharine Feaster being the other - with that combination.
Feaster, now a senior at Davidson, won four state singles titles, the only player in state history to do so.
"This one is special because it's the last one," Hawkins said. "It's also special because I played one of my good friends and teammates in the final, which made it kind of hard, but I love Landie to death so it made it extra special that I got to finish with her.
"I've had some of the best times in my life at Baylor. I've made so many of my best friends on the team, and the coaches are like family to me. I'm going to miss it like crazy."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.