From School Reports
The USTA/ITA Southern Regional JUCO
Championships concluded a four-day tournament on Saturday with winners from
three different junior colleges around the area. The tournament began
Wednesday night with seventy-six singles players and
thirty-five doubles teams. The Southern JUCO is the one of the
biggest among the ITA JUCO tournaments.
Players from Copiah Lincoln Community College, East
Central Community College, Hinds Community College, Holmes Community College,
Marion Military Institute, Mississippi Gulf Coast CC and Meridian competed for
an opportunity to take one male and one female singles player and a male and a
female doubles team to the National Small College Championships, which will be
held October 14-18 at Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, South Carolina.
The National Small College is in an elite class as this is the only
tournament in any sport that allows players an opportunity to compete against
larger colleges.
The National Small College
Championships brings the best of the best from JUCO, DII, DIII, and NAIA.
The winners of this tournament will get
a chance to play at the Division I Indoor Championships to be held in November
with the support of sponsors USTA/ITA.
After four long days of play, the
winners surfaced. In singles play, Meridian CC’s
Jason Pimenta took an early lead and breezed to the win over Marion’s
Adam Bahney 6-2, 6-1.
Pimenta came into the tournament as the
number one seed, so he had a Bye the first round. In the round of 32,
Matthew Philley(Holmes) withdrew; Pimenta advanced to the Round
of 16 before playing a match. In the round of
16, Pimenta defeated Diep (Gulf Coast) o,o. He then faced
Gulf Coast’s Noah Tippen. He did not lose a set on the way to the
finals. He also cruised past MMI’s Harry Foster 0,0. East Central
Community College’s Will Stewart won the consolation singles with a win over
Hinds’ Chris Crapps 8-3.
In men’s doubles, it was an all Marion
Military final as Harry Foster/Andrew Wright defeated teammates
Adam Bahney/Max Holloway 6-1, 6-3.
Meridian’s Pimenta/Sam Bulter lost
in the semifinals to Bahney/Holloway 8-6. Foster/Wright advanced to
the finals with a win over MGCCC’s Sam Blackburn/Brett Bowen 8-4.
Foster/Wright took the tournament
doubles from a pool of twenty double teams. In the consolation finals, it
was an all Meridian contest as the teams of John Taylor Champion/Nathan Hollis
defeated MCC’s duo Walt Harrington/Noah James 8-5. Champion/Hollis moved to the
consolation finals with a win over fellow teammates Will Irvin/Alex Vaughn 8-5.
Harrington/James defeated Hendon/Villarreal (Hinds) 8-2 to move to the
consolation finals.
In women’s action, Meridian dominated
play although
Mississippi Gulf Coast won both championship berths. Meridian had five of
eight players to
advance to the quarterfinals.
In the
round of 16,
Paulina Estrada (GC) defeated East Central’s Brook Payen 0,0. East Central’s Kaley Bufkinmoved to the semis by defeating
Kaylen Cooper (Holmes) 2, 0. Shelby Zachry (MCC) defeated Karah Younger (GC) 7-6 (5), 6-0
to advance. Chaney Mills (ECCC) advanced to the quarters with a 1, 2 win
over Katie Robinson (GC).
Meridian’s freshman player, Hayden
Hill, moved to the quarters with a win over Hannah Wegner (GC) 4, 0.
Freshman Taylor Miller, (MCC) defeated Rachel Rhett (Hinds) 6-3, 3-6,
10-3. Freshman Kyra Holway (Meridian) moved to the
quarters with a win over Emily Dykeman (EC), 2, 4.
The final match of this round had
Meridian’s Paige Gibson, who was the number two seed, breezing past Angel Seals (GC) 0, 2.
These wins set up the all MCC matchups in the bottom half of the singles
bracket. MCC’s Miller and Hill had a battle with Hayden Hill coming out
the victor with a 4-6, 7-5, 10-2 win.
Paige Gibson defeated freshman teammate
Kyra Holway 3, 1 to advance to the
semis. Rounding out the quarterfinal matches had MCC’s Shelby Zachry defeating Chaney Mills
(ECCC) 1, 3 and GC’s Paulina Estrada defeating ECCC’s Bufkin 0,1.
In the semis, Paige Gibson put out her
freshman teammate, Hayden Hill in two sets4, 2 . Paulina Estrada
(GC) defeated MCC’s Zachry 1, 2 to advance to the
finals. In Saturday action, Meridian’s Gibson fell in three sets to
Paulina Estrada 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. In
doubles action, Estrada/Katie Robinson took the championships in three sets
with a win over Zachry/Gibson (MCC) 5-7, 6-2, 10-2.
Gibson/Zachry won three matches to
advance to the finals. In the opening round, they defeated McCrimon/McCrimon (ECCC)
8-1. They then breezed past Meyers/Brown (Hinds) 8-0. The MCC duo
defeated Kaley Bufkin/Chaney Mills (ECCC) 8-2 to set
up the final matchup with the number one doubles seed, Paulina Estrada/Katie
Robinson. In other action, Meridian’s double team of Jami Daugherty/Taylor
Miller fell in the quarters to Estrada/Robinson. Alden Hartley/Kyra Holway were defeated by Hinds’
Rhett/Slusasz 9-7.
The final Meridian duo, Hayden
Hill/Brittany Allen fell in the first round of play to the number three seeds
Kaley Bufkin/Chaney Mills (ECCC) 8-6.
The Meridian teams return to action
Friday when they travel to Boaz, AL for dual matches with Gadsden State and
Snead.
