We've Reached the Mid Point.

Kayla Morgan (above) teamed up with Torey Hart (below) to win their match in doubles against the Owls of Ooltewah.





Well we've played seven matches and we have six matches plus two tournaments to go. Whew! I realize our record does not indicate much improvement, but I can see it. Slowly but surely, these kids are starting to buy into the things I've been teaching them this year. I am super-excited about meeting up with some of these teams again to really gauge how much we've accomplished this season.

Our last match of the first half of the season started with a nightmarish trip up I-75 to the Ooltewah exit. It wasn't quite rush hour, but there was a lot of traffic, compounded by four lanes being bottle-necked into two lanes a couple of miles from our exit. Coach Buchanan completely understood, and he allowed our players some time to warm up properly, even though most of our team didn't show up until right around our 3:30pm start time.

Due to the late start and a few close matches, I didn't leave the courts till nearly 7:30pm. I did allow most of the team to head home early, and after the finish of #3 Girls Doubles, I was sorry I did. What a match! Torey Hart and Kayla Morgan (both of whom learned how to play tennis this year) were in a battle. Down five games to three, these two clawed their way back winning five of the next six games to win 8-6! More importantly, they did it the right way. They were being aggressive at the net. They were covering the open court. They were keeping the ball away from the opposing net player. All the things I preach in practice-- the match even ended with Torey (who was playing at the net) putting a short ball right in the belly of the opposing net player. She immediately apologized, and when I asked her about it, she said: "I was aiming at her feet." Perfect!

It was the only win we got against a very good Ooltewah team, and I couldn't have been more proud!



Allison Cowart (pictured above) almost pulled off a huge upset against Katie Woodham at the #1 Girls Singles spot. I've known Katie for a few years now, and I have never seen her that flustered. Allison's backhand slice was giving Katie all she could handle. Katie prevailed in the tiebreaker, but Allison played one heckuva match!

Here are the results:

Ooltewah Girls def. Hixson Girls 8-1

Girls Singles:

Katie Woodham (O) def. Allison Cowart, 9-8 (8-6)
Jessica Crum (O) def. Candace Cline, 8-4
Hollie Whitener (O) def. Ashton Summers, 8-0
Holly Humberger (O) def. Whitney Clack, 8-4
Wendy Rogers (O) def. Torey Hart, 8-1
Kayla Leach (O) def. Kayla Morgan, 8-5

Girls Doubles:

Woodham/Whitener (O) def. Cowart/Summers, 8-1
Crum/Humberger (O) def. Cline/Clack, 8-3
Hart/Morgan (H) def. Rogers/Leach, 8-6

Ooltewah Boys def. Hixson Boys 9-0

Boys Singles:

Caleb Friddell (O) def. Dylan Millwood, 8-3
Jack Wongmanee (O) def. George Ozborn, 8-4
Chris Stiner (O) def. Corey Phillips, 8-1
Kevin Squires (O) def. Eric Barr, 8-1
Bryson Lype (O) def. Jonathan Craft, 8-2
Nick Grenier (O) def. Jae Yoo, 8-0

Boys Doubles:

Friddell/Wongmanee (O) def. Millwood/Ozborn, 8-2
Stiner/Squires (O) def. Phillips/Barr, 8-0
Lype/Grenier (O) def. Craft/Yoo, 8-6

Up next: Spring Break! We've got 13 days before our next match which will be a home match versus CSAS. For those of you staying in town, be on the look out for some optional practices. The first one is slated for 9:00am on Friday at a court to be determined.

Courts Under Repair.

As most of you know by now, the outdoor hard courts at the Racquet Club are under repair. We had to move Monday's match against Red Bank to their home courts at Rivermont Park. When we meet them again on April 27, we will play on our home courts-- so please make a note of that on your schedules. It looks like we are going to have to move Wednesday's match against Ooletwah as well, but I won't know for sure until later this afternoon. I will let the team know today at practice. Ooletwah's home courts are located on their campus and you can find directions here: 6123 Mountain View Road.

As for the match against the Lions, it went pretty much as I suspected. The Lady Lions remain undefeated in District play and barring unforeseen circumstances should remain that way for the rest of the season. I had a full, healthy roster but we were no match for their depth and experience. Coach Wagner, having swept the singles, called off the dogs during the doubles matches and our girls got two out of three wins and lost the third in a close one 6-8. All in all it was a pleasant experience, and I'm proud of my girls for giving their best effort against a very tough team.

As I suggested in Sunday's post, I really liked our chances on the boys side. We almost pulled off the win. Heading into the doubles we had to sweep to secure a team win. We fell just short: taking two of three. Again I'd like to praise George Ozborn, who was not himself as he had been sick all weekend, and was still feeling under the weather at match time but insisted on playing both singles and doubles. I'm speculating, but I think if George was feeling better, we would have won this match going away. I can't wait till the Lions visit us in April. Jonathan Craft played superbly again winning his singles and doubles matches and big congratulations to Eric Barr (pictured below) for picking up his first singles win of the season!



Here are the results:

Red Bank Girls def. Hixson Girls 7-2

Girls Singles:

Amy Metcalf (RB) def. Allison Cowart, 8-2
Ivory Conley (RB) def. Candace Cline, 8-1
Kristen Camp (RB) def. Ashton Summers, 8-1
Megan Long (RB) def. Whitney Clack, 8-1
Rachel Hargis (RB) def. Torey Hart, 8-3
Danielle Moore (RB) def. Kayla Morgan, 8-1

Girls Doubles:

Cowart/Summers (H) def. Claire Cox/Amee Desai, 8-4
Cline/Clack (H) def. Julia Reed/Sadie Kerlie, 8-2
Taylor Lewis/ Tara Wiley (RB) def. Hart/Morgan, 8-6

Red Bank Boys def, Hixson Boys 5-4

Boys Singles:

Mark Colbert (RB) def. Dylan Millwood, 8-5
Nic Gagliano (RB) def. George Ozborn, 8-5
Brandon Lewis (RB) def. Corey Phillips, 8-5
Eric Barr (H) def. Jonathan Campbell, 9-7
Jonathan Craft (H) def. Saagar Desai, 8-6
Cody Cox (RB) def. Jae Yoo, 8-3

Boys Doubles:

Millwood/Ozborn (H) def. Colbert/Hunter Dake, 8-4
Gagliano/Lewis (RB) def. Phillips/Barr, 8-3
Craft/Yoo (H) def. Desai/Cox, 8-5

Up next: Ooltewah. The Owls are always tough and this year is no exception. The Lady Owls might be the toughest team our girls face this season. The boys will be very good as well. A difficult way to end the first half of the season to be sure, but, as they say: What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.

Catching Up!

Hey folks, sorry I missed match recaps for the last two matches. I have been extremely busy. Hopefully, I'll stay on top of it from here on out. As I mentioned in the earlier email, the Red Bank match on Monday will be played at Rivermont Park instead of the Racquet Club as the work crews finish fixing our outdoor courts.



Not much good to say about the last two matches. We were outplayed by both Silverdale and East Hamilton. Silverdale Academy is a private school with plenty of experience. The one really bright spot for Hixson was George Ozborn (pictured above), who played one of the best matches I've ever seen him play in the two seasons that I've worked with him.

Here are the Silverdale results:

Silverdale Girls def. Hixson 8-1

Girls Singles:

Lauren Milligan (S) def. Allison Cowart (H) 8-1
Jessica Christensen (S) def. Candace Cline (H) 9-7
Kelsey Dalrymple (S) def. Whitney Clack (H) 8-0
Megan West (S) def. Torey Hart (H) 8-1
Molly Burns (S) def. Kayla Morgan (H) 8-1
Hannah Mench (S) def. Caroline Daugherty (H) 8-0

Girls Doubles:

Kristina Woods/ Sarah Pardue (S) def. Cline/Clack (H) 8-4
Cowart/Hart (H) def. Burns/Mench (S) 9-8 (7-5)
Megan Berry/Olivia Seay (S) def. Morgan/Daugherty (H) 8-5

Silverdale Boys def. Hixson Boys 8-1

Boys Singles:

George Ozborn (H) def. Alex Lowry (S) 8-6
Andrew Wicks (S) def. Dylan Millwood (H) 8-3
Reid Stubbefield (S) def. Corey Phillips (H) 8-6
Alex Nichols (S) def. Eric Barr (H) 8-1
Mitchell Brown (S) def. Jonathan Craft (H) 8-0
Jared Defrise (S) def. Jae Yoo (H) 8-3

Boys Doubles:

Lowry/Wicks (S) def. Ozborn/Millwood (H) 9-8 (7-5)
Stubbefield/Brown (S) def. Phillips/Barr (H) 8-4
Nichols/Defrise (S) def. Craft/Yoo (H) 8-3

The East Hamilton match was a learning experience. They have a very young team (there is no senior class at East Hamilton yet), but plenty of talent. Unfortunately, they look like the team to beat in our district for the next couple of years on the Boys side as their top two seeds are only in 9th and 10th grade. Still, if my boys are willing to work, I'm hoping we can close that gap sooner rather than later. Nice win for Jonathan Craft at #5 singles (pictured below).



My girls had a rough time with two of the top three seeds (Allison and Ashton) out due to illness. All the remaining girls played valiantly and even managed a win in doubles. We'll give the Lady Hurricanes a run for their money when they come to the Racquet Club in April-- I promise.

Here are the results:

East Hamilton Girls def. Hixson Girls 8-1

Girls Singles:

Hilleary Chandler (EH) def. Candace Cline, 8-1
Abigail Ware (EH) def. Whitney Clack, 8-4
Gabrielle Fern (EH) def. Torey Hart, 8-1
Ashley Riner (EH) def. Kayla Morgan, 8-0
Paige Clark (EH) def. Caroline Daugherty, 8-2
Joanna Tang (EH) wins by forfeit

Girls Doubles:

Cline/Clack (H) def. Katie Cotton/Nicole Rice, 8-4
Kayla Dyer/Ally Crum (EH) def. Hart/Morgan, 9-7
(EH) wins #3 doubles by forfeit

East Hamilton Boys def. Hixson boys 8-1

Boys Singles:

Zach McCormick (EH) def. George Ozborn, 8-1
Nick McCormick (EH) def. Dylan Millwood, 8-1
Daniel Jung (EH) def. Corey Phillips, 8-3
Ryan Williamson (EH) def. Eric Barr, 8-1
Jonathan Craft (H) def. David Templeton, 9-8 (7-3)
River Mark (EH) def. Jae Yoo, 8-3

Boys Doubles:

McCormick/McCormick (EH) def. Ozborn/Millwood, 8-1
Jung/Williamson (EH) def. Phillips/Barr, 8-3
Tej Dhond/Randsom Mark (EH) def. Craft/Yoo, 8-1

Up Next: Red Bank. From all accounts they look like the toughest team in our district on the Girls side. Their boys, however, are not as experienced and it should be a close match.

Directions to East Hamilton Match.

Hey folks, we had a tough one today against Silverdale. I'm not going to do a recap until tomorrow after our match with East Hamilton. Speaking of which, here are directions to Standifer Gap Park, which is where they play their home matches. Call me if you get lost!


Directions to Standifer Gap Park @ Yahoo Maps

Win One, Lose One

Well once again we've determined that the people running weather.com aren't very good at what they do. No rain today, and it actually felt like Spring for much of today's match. The clouds were looming there toward the end, but for the most part it was pleasant.

Congratulations to my Boys who earned their first district win. They won seven of the nine matches and lost another in a tough tiebreaker against the Purple Pounders of Chattanooga Central. Corey Phillips, Jae Yoo and Jonathan Craft (my 4, 5, and 6 seeds) really carried the load today by sweeping their singles and doubles matches. Very satisfying win.

The girls also played well, but were forced to forfeit two matches due to injury and illness. Still they almost pulled off the amazing upset. We had a chance with our last doubles match on the court. As a coach, I like my chances if that's the case. We'll see Central later in the year, and hopefully we'll have a full, healthy line-up.

Next week is another tough week with matches on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. With that in mind and the weather looking good for Saturday, I'm having a mandatory practice on Saturday 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Racquet Club on the Hard Courts. I say "mandatory" but if you've already made plans to go out of town, or have something else going on, just let me know.

Here are the results:

Central Girls def. Hixson Girls 5-4

Girls Singles:

Autumn Baker (C) def. Allison Cowart (H) 8-6
Candace Cline (H) def. Taylor Woods (C) 8-2
Christy Loden (C) def. Ashton Summers (H) 8-6
Whitney Clack (H) def. Erin Jones (C) 8-1
Torey Hart (H) def. Alex Cotter (C) 8-3
Kelsey Cagle (C) def. Caroline Daugherty (H) Forfeit

Girls Doubles:

Cowart/Summers (H) def. Baker/Jones (C) 8-3
Woods/Loden (C) def. Cline/Clack (H) 8-4
Cotter/Cagle (C) def. Hart/Daugherty (H) Forfeit

Hixson Boys def. Central Boys 6-3

Boys Singles:

John Mitchell (C) def. George Ozborn (H) 8-2
Dylan Millwood (H) def. Coalton Mulkey (C) 8-6
Ethan Hickman (C) def. Eric Barr (H) 8-4
Corey Phillips (H) def. Jeff Chastain (C) 8-5
Jae Yoo (H) def. Aaron Sanchez (C) 8-5
Jonathan Craft (H) def. Alex Henley 8-4

Boys Doubles:

Mitchell/Mulkey (C) def. Millwood/Barr (H) 9-8 (7-5)
Ozborn/Phillips (H) def. Hickman/Chastain (C) 8-6
Yoo/Craft (H) def. Sanchez/Henley (C) 8-1

A Chilly Defeat at Warner Park.

Before we get into today's match recap, I hope you all have a chance to watch the above video (Parents, make your kids watch it). If you haven't had a chance to watch Gael Monfils (near court) play, then prepare to be amazed. His athleticism aside, what I want all my kids to take away from this video, is that Monfils (pronounced Mon-FEECE) never tries to do too much. Even the winner he hits at the end of the point looks effortless. When he's being chased from side to side, he hits the ball with spin and height and recovers toward the middle of the court. Too many times I see my players trying to do too much when they are off balance. This is not the time to try to hit a winner. Instead, throw up a lob and hope to keep the rally alive. I realize Monfils makes it look easy, but we can all learn something from that point. Okay, enough X's and O's. Here's the recap:

Those weather.com people have no idea what is going to happen do they? Again, the forecast was for a little sunshine today, but I don't think we ever got any. Instead, it was another cloudy, breezy day-- though not quite as cold as yesterday.

We lost to a tough district team today in CSAS, but we also scored some nice victories, and on the Boys' side, we maybe should have had a couple of others. Hats off to Jonathan Craft who won easily in just his second match ever in the number six slot. He and Jae Yoo had their chances, but lost in a tough tiebreaker in the number three doubles slot.

On the girls's side, Candace Cline coasted to an 8-1 victory in the #2 position, but we fell in all the other matches. Please keep Kayla Morgan in your thoughts and prayers this evening, as she had a bit of an issue with her knee and had to retire late in her match. She seemed fine a little while after, and was even asking to play in the doubles, but I decided we needed to err on the side of caution. Thanks to Caroline Daugherty for filling in admirably in the number three doubles position. Caroline got to play an exhibition yesterday against Rhea County, but this was her first real tennis match. Last year I did not have that luxury, you can't know how relieved I am to actually have a bench this year.

I'll keep my eye on the weather, but it does look like we are in for some rain on Wednesday night and Thursday. I'll wait as long as I can before canceling Thursday's match. If we can't play, I'm going to try to get us an indoor court so that we can get some practice in. Well that's it for now.


Here are the results:

CSAS Girls Def. Hixson Girls 8-1

Girls Singles:

Ahmee Kelly (C) def. Allison Cowart 8-3
Candace Cline (H) def. Erin Mournier (C) 8-1
Maria Alley (C) def. Ashton Summers (H) 8-4
Rachel Phillips (C) def. Whitney Clack (H) 8-6
Cindy Ormaza (C) def. Torey Hart (H) 8-0
Hannah Byrne (C) def. Kayla Morgan (H) 7-0 (Ret.)

Girls Doubles:

Kelly/Mournier (C) def. Cowart/Summers (H) 8-0
Alley/Phillips (C) def. Cline/Clack (H) 8-5
Kelsey Williams/Allie Emmett (C) def. Hart/Caroline Daugherty (H) 8-0

CSAS Boys def. Hixson Boys 7-2

Boys Singles:

Ian Derthick (C) def. George Ozborn (H) 8-2
Brian Wright (C) def. Dylan Millwood (H) 8-6
Alex Evers (C) def. Eric Barr (H) 8-1
Raja Moughrabi (C) def. Corey Phillips 8-4
Sam Kret (C) def. Jae Yoo 8-4
Jonathan Craft (H) def. Matt Collum 8-1

Boys Doubles:

Derthick/Wright (C) def. Millwood/Barr (H) 8-5
Ozborn/Phillips (H) def. Evers/Moughrabi (C) 8-7 (7-2)
Chandler Custer/Reymon Kim (C) def. Yoo/Craft (H) 8-7 (7-4)

Off to a Cold Start.

#4 Seed, Whitney Clack-- had our lone win in Singles on a cold day at the Racquet Club.



#2 Seed, Candace Cline-- teamed up with Whitney in #2 Doubles to snag our second "W" of the match.

(Special thanks to Melanie Cowart for the fabulous pictures!)


I can't remember a more miserable day to ask our kids to play tennis. The skies looked like they might start spitting snow at any moment, and I don't think the wind chill ever got above 40 degrees. To add insult to injury, we had to play a formidable opponent in the Golden Eagles. Still, our kids played their hearts out. Hats off to a well coached squad from Rhea County!

We had several members playing their first ever match (Kayla Morgan, Torey Hart, Jonathan Craft) and a couple others making their High School Tennis debut (Whitney Clack and Russ Rebennack). All in all, I must say that I'm quite pleased with the way things went. I'd like to single out the outstanding play of Freshman, Whitney Clack, who persevered through two tough tie breakers to stay perfect on the day. She won her singles match 9-7 in the tiebreak, and along with Candace Cline was able to outlast their Rhea County opponents 7-4 in the breaker. For those of you new to the sport, our teams play pro-sets to 8 games. If they are tied after 14 games (7-7), they play a tiebreaker to 7 points, but you have to win by two. It makes for some exciting tennis, as any of you who stuck around for the end of that doubles match can attest.

Here are the results:

Rhea County Girls Defeat Hixson Girls 7-2

Girls Singles:

Kelci Fredericks (RC) def. Allison Cowart (H) 8-0
Caylee Cochran (RC) def. Candace Cline (H) 8-2
Kayley Argo (RC) def. Ashton Summers (H) 8-3
Whitney Clack (H) def. Addison Edwards (RC) 8-7 (9-7)
Gina Reed (RC) def. Torey Hart (H) 8-0
Kara McClendon (RC) def. Kayla Morgan (H) 8-1

Girls Doubles:

Fredricks/Cochran (RC) def. Cowart/Summers (H) 8-0
Cline/Clack (H) def. Johnston/Yearwood (RC) 8-7 (7-4)
Chavis/Clevenger (RC) def. Hart/Morgan (H) 8-5

Rhea County Boys defeat Hixson Boys 9-0

Boys Singles:

Dylan Coulter (RC) def. George Ozborn 8-3
Jake Ricketts (RC) def. Dylan Millwood 8-2
Jacob Davis (RC) def. Eric Barr 8-0
Zach Madewell (RC) def. Corey Phillips 8-3
Wesley Sanders (RC) def. Jae Yoo 8-2
Evan Smith (RC) def. Jonathan Craft 8-6

Boys Doubles:

Coulter/Sanders (RC) def. Millwood/Barr (H) 8-2
Ricketts/Madewell (RC) def. Ozborn/Phillips (H) 8-3
Davis/Smith (RC) def. Yoo/Russ Rebennack (H) 8-0

Next match is tomorrow against CSAS @ Warner Park, they should be just as tough, but hopefully the weather will be kinder.

Welcome to the New Hixson High School Tennis Blog!

Hey Folks,

I thought instead of boring you all with periodic emails, I'd carve out a little niche for us here in the blogosphere. I'll be posting stuff here throughout the year in order help keep everyone informed of what's going on with the Hixson High School Tennis Teams. Let's get started, shall we?

The season kicks off in full gear this week with matches scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Looking at the extended forecast, it looks like we should be fine on M & T, but it looks bad for Thursday-- hopefully that will change between now and then.

As for the uniforms, I apologize. I think the girls are getting theirs in on Monday (fingers crossed!) and hopefully the boys will too. I ordered the boys' uniforms at the beginning of the month, but there was a slight mix up between the the school's accountant and the company we ordered the uniforms from. Long story short, Mrs. Carr just sent them a copy of our Purchase Order via Fax on Friday morning, so the uniforms were still sitting in California as of Friday. We asked for expedited shipping, but who knows with the weekend. If all else fails, we are just going to wear the Hixson Tennis T-Shirts that I've given everybody. The boys can wear black shorts and the girls a black or white skirt.

Well, that is all for now. Hope to see you at the matches this week! And as always, I welcome any comments or questions.