From left, Signal Mountain’s Grace Williams and Sarah Kate Bailey celebrate a point in their championship match against L&N STEM’s Abbey Lee and Armani Hall. The Signal Mountain partners won the finals of the TSSAA Spring Fling tennis tournament at the Adams Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro, Tenn. on May 25, 2018.MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A long week came to a solid conclusion for the Signal Mountain tennis team Friday.
The Eagles and Lady Eagles walked away from the Adams Tennis Center with a total of three championships, including a pair of Division I Small Class individual crowns. Signal senior Sarah Kate Bailey and eighth-grader Grace Williams won in three-set fashion in the girls’ doubles final, as did Williams’ brother Gabe in the boys’ singles draw.
The girls had won the classification’s team title Wednesday.
In boys’ doubles, the Eagles’ Thomas Thelen and Grant Williams fell to Trinity Christian’s Ben Sidwell and Cam Presley in straight sets.
Bailey and Grace Williams became the first area Division I girls to win a doubles state title since Chattanooga Christian sisters Ellie and Hannah Henry in 2012 – and the first public-school duo since the second of two for Arts & Sciences sisters Kayla and Ahmee Kelly in 2010 – but they had to work for it after dropping the first set 1-6. Bailey admitted that the two “thought it was over,” but they made some adjustments to get back into the match.