The Baylor girls' tennis team is not used to losing.
The seven-time defending state champions entered Saturday trailing Knoxville Webb 15-13 in the A division of the 62nd annual Chattanooga Rotary prep tournament, which Baylor's Lady Red Raiders have won the past two years.
Despite early-morning Baylor success in the singles finals, Webb held on to win 22-20 and take the title back to Knoxville.
Rain caused the tournament to be played in the indoor facilities at Baylor, and with fewer courts available each set began at 2-2. Even then, Friday's matches lasted late into the night, and the singles finals starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday made for a quick turnaround.
"I thought we stayed pretty focused throughout the whole tournament," Baylor coach Kevin Donovan said. "They were long days and some very good competition. Starting 2-2 meant there was not a lot of time to breathe. One break and you're already in a hole. We played well, but we just couldn't put it all together at the end."
Possibly the most exciting match of the final day was the No. 2 girls' singles final between Baylor's Lauren Carelli and Webb's Carina Dagotto. After splitting the first two sets 6-4 and 3-6, Carelli broke Dagotto's serve late in the third set and then won a tiebreaker 7-4.
"Her perseverance and attitude, she was so positive with her body language," Donovan said. "She played absolutely fantastic, exactly what a Baylor tennis player is supposed to play like."
The Lady Red Raiders and Webb played head to head in four of the morning's singles finals, with Baylor's Carelli, Landie McBrayer and Anna Hawkins winning the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 matchups. Heading into the doubles semifinals, Baylor had trimmed Webb's lead to 17-16.
Webb and Baylor faced off in all three of the doubles finals, with Webb winning two to secure the title.
While Baylor and Webb dominated most of the girls' main-draw matches, it was Girls Preparatory School senior standout Maddox Bandy who won the No. 1 singles final. She defeated Webb's Lauren Yoon 6-4, 6-4.
"I've played her a lot and she has a tough serve," said Bandy, who will play collegiately at Lipscomb. "Any time I can break her serve it helps me to relax on mine. Playing tournaments like this (against tough competition) helps me to get match-tough and prepares me for singles at state."
The Boys' A tournament was very similar to the girls, with two-time defending champ St. Xavier from Louisville, Ky., coming up just short of three-peating as Montgomery Bell Academy from Nashville won 16 points to 14.5. Gilman from Baltimore, Md., finished third with 13.5 points, just ahead of Memphis University School's 13.
Baylor and McCallie tied for fifth with eight points each. They play each other Wednesday at McCallie.
Knoxville Webb also won the Boys' B Division, scoring 24 of a possible 27 points, and McCracken from Kentucky was the Girls' B champion with 20. Gabe Williams of Signal Mountain won the B boys' No. 3 singles title.
Contact Kevin Llewallyn at sports@timesfreepress.com.