Chattanooga tennis teams in the 18-over 7.0 division and the 55-over 8.0 category won head-to-head matches Sunday against Memphis teams for Tennessee State Adult Mixed Doubles championships. That gave Chattanooga three champions in the state tournament the city hosted, and two others tied for top spots but fell just short in tiebreaker criteria.
With captain Mikki Brown taking one daughter to Samford University in Birmingham for the start of school today, another daughter, 2016 Samford graduate Emily Brown, served as acting captain Sunday and was one of the winning players as Chattanooga won the battle of unbeatens in 18s 7.0 at the Champions Club. And Debbie Rogers’ 55s 8.0 team from Chattanooga wound up 5-0 in the weekend round robin with its Sunday showdown victory at Baylor School.
That followed a mixture of Chattanooga-area and Upper East Tennessee players captained by Chattanoogan Wes Miller clinching the 18s 8.0 state title Saturday. They and Brown’s team will play in the Southern Sectional for 18-over teams Oct. 7-9 at the Champions Club. Rogers’ group will play Nov. 2-4 in Little Rock, Ark.
Tom McCullough’s 65-over 7.0 Chattanooga team won two matches by 3-0 scores Sunday at the Racquet Club but just missed getting an automatic berth to Little Rock despite sharing 5-1 weekend records with Knoxville’s entry. Knoxville and Chattanooga each won 2-1 in their head-to-head meetings Friday and Saturday, but the individual-matches tiebreaker came down to Chattanooga beating Murfreesboro 2-1 and 3-0 and Knoxville topping Murfreesboro 3-0 twice.
Murfreesboro kept up the suspense until deep in the afternoon Sunday, as one of its duos battled back from a first-set loss and a 5-3 second-set deficit against a Knoxville pair to win set two in a tiebreaker, but the Knoxvillians won a match tiebreaker to preserve the 3-0 team win and the state-title status.
“We played hard but came up just a little bit short,” said McCullough, a longtime local educator. “I’m 70 years old and I’ve been a captain of a 65 team the past four years, and we keep improving and adding good players.”
Joining him on the roster were his wife, Faye, plus Joe Pate, Sylvia Hutsell, Carol Collins, Richard Campbell and Roger and Jo Gallups.
The other Chattanooga team that shared a best record but lost out by one individual win was Serena Lau’s 40-over 7.0 group. They finished a 3-1 record Saturday, but the Jackson team got to 3-1 with a victory Sunday against Nashville and won the sectional berth.
Rogers’ championship players are Kirk Kelly, Mary Polcari, Tommy Boone, Roberta “Boo” Mullinax, Robert Fisher, Kim Conner, Shana Patten, Beth Eckert, Connie Stephas, Andy Miller and Ken Ellinger. The core of that group has been together about seven years, Kelly said, and made one trip to the 50s nationals as well as last year’s sectional in Little Rock.
The Browns’ champions in 18s include players in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Besides Emily Brown, they are Blake Savard, Kim Riley, Chase Caldwell, Brent Hemstreet, Andrea Watson, Rachel Faulkner, Jake Harden, Roger Ross and Nancy Zierenberg. Savard, Faulkner and Brown were in Junior Team Tennis together, when Faulkner’s dad was their coach and they reached the sectionals.
“We went to the state in Murfreesboro last year and didn’t win. I think we were third,” said Emily Brown, who was undefeated with three different partners Friday through Sunday. “It’s so nice to come back and win.”
Wes Miller’s winning team includes Natalie Jenereski, Andy Johnson, Jordan Widelock and Megan and Eric Pope from the Chattanooga area, Robin Proffitt from Calhoun, Ga., Monica Haney from Atlanta and the Tri-Cities contingent of Cassie Nabalta, Trey Ambrose and Marley and Josh Woods. Some of those also are on a 9.0 roster from Upper East Tennessee and played this past weekend for the runner-up in that category. They gave Memphis its one defeat.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.