Staff Photo by Tim Barber
Boyd-Buchanan’s Tarah Garner returns a serve from Silverdale Academy’s Lauren Milligan during the girls District 5A/AA finals at Lee University on Tuesday. Garner took the championship 6-0, 6-0.
Staff Photo by Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sarah Evans returns a serve to Baylor’s Samantha Caswell during Sunday’s championship semifinals at the McCallie School tennis courts. Evans is a student at the Girls Preparatory School.Tarah Garner and Sarah Evans aren’t quite sure how long they’ve been playing doubles together in tournaments. The consensus is that it’s somewhere between five and 15 years, with no clear answer.
The two are participating in the Tennessee Valley Open Championships at Manker Patten this weekend, taking some downtime from their college careers. Garner will be a senior at Lee University in the fall, while Evans will be a junior at Wofford College.
Also playing in the TVOC is 2011 Calhoun (Ga.) graduate Jodie Rice, who will be a sophomore at Lee. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standouts Kaylene Chadwell and Emily Hangstefer are also participating, as are Baylor rising juniors Samantha Caswell, Harper Caswell and McCall Morgan.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signee Alison Storie from Science Hill is in the field as well.
Garner was a two-time Class A/AA state singles champion while playing at Boyd-Buchanan from 2005 to ’09, while Evans played at GPS from 2006 to ’10 and won the Division II-AA state her senior season.