MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — It had been a long time coming.
GPS senior Sarah Evans broke through to earn her first individual high school tennis state championship Friday, defeating Baylor eighth-grader Samantha Caswell 6-0, 6-0 in the Division II-AA final at Old Fort State Park.
Arts & Sciences’ Ahmee and Kayla Kelly claimed their second consecutive Class A/AA doubles title, needing three sets to outlast Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Natalie Seale and Katherine Schofield 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4).
St. Andrew’s-Sewanee sophomore Sadie Shackelford was denied her bid at a third straight Division II-A title, falling 6-2, 6-3 to King’s Academy junior Christine Gwodag.
The win marked Evans’ fifth state title, counting four team championships with the Bruisers. Although she’s waited for this one the longest, it doesn’t mean as much as the title she got Wednesday with her teammates.
“I’m a big team player,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, the individual title is good, too — and I’m definitely glad I won the individual — but I’m more happy the team won.”
Evans was as sharp as she had been in any match all season against Caswell.
“It’s special to go out like that as a senior,” she said. “I was in the finals last year and had a lot of nerves, but today I wanted to be calm and go for my shots — be consistent.”
The Kelly twins might have prepared for Friday’s match in their semifinal win Thursday, when they needed three sets to defeat Summertown’s Molly Tucker and Devon Jennings 6-1, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3 in the semifinal.
“I thought that yesterday was a good warm-up for us,” Kayla said. “We caught ourselves getting mad at each other, and what we found out was that we play terrible when we’re mad at each other. We’re sisters first and partners second, so we were able to come together and play hard at the end to get the win.”
Ahmee said that although the season had its bumps along the way, the final prize was worth it.
“I thought we meshed pretty well, but we didn’t have a lot of time to play together on the court,” she said.
Aside from a Champions Club tournament in April, the two didn’t play doubles together until the postseason.
“We’re sisters and we share a room together, but on the court you can forget certain things about your partner,” Ahmee added. “We’re thankful for both of our titles, but we can’t take anything away from our opponent. They brought out the best in us.”
