Hixson Girls Clinch District 6-A/AA Team Championship!

Well we did it.  I told the girls at the beginning of the season LAST year, that this would be the year all their hard work would culminate in a championship.  I'll be honest, there were times this year that I did not think we were going to pull it off.  We had two nail-biter matches earlier this season against East Hamilton and Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences.  We managed to win both of those by the same 5-4 score.  Today we were meeting the Patriots for the second time.

Because CSAS had beaten East Hamilton, I knew heading into today's match that if our girls won, we would clinch the District Championship.  The question was, did the girls need to know?  Tricky.  Do these teenage girls need any more pressure on them to do well?  Or, would that knowledge provide a spark? 

I told them.

They responded with the best play I've seen all year.  Coach Scott and I had already agreed that we would forgo doubles today if either team won five matches in the singles.  Since we battled to a 5-4 win the last time we played and split singles right down the middle, I fully expected to play doubles today.  That is not what happened.

Whitney Clack, who lost the last time we played CSAS, was off the court first with a big 8-1 win in the #1 slot.  When she finished, Hixson was up on two courts (#2 and #3), but down on the remaining three courts (#4, #5 and #6).  Michelle was the next off the court, disposing of her opponent rather easily.  Then things got interesting.

Emily Gilreath (#3) who got off to a great start and was up 5-2, had to weather a surge from her opponent.  Haylee Gossett (#4) was down 2-5.  Corynne Schannuth was on serve, but every time they changed over, she was down by 1.  Maggie Ozborn (#5)  was the next one off the court, and it was the first match that hadn't gone our way.  Hixson 2, CSAS 1--things were not looking good.

On Emily's court, they changed sides and CSAS had pulled to within one game: 5-4, Hixson still leading.  Haylee's court changed over, and it was now CSAS 6-3.  Corynne, however, had broken serve and was up 5-4.  I started to breathe a little easier.  I figured if we could get two of those remaining three singles, we would take care of business in the doubles.

Again, something remarkable happened.

Emily won two straight games and was up 7-4.  Corynne held onto her one break lead.  Haylee won two games, and suddenly I started to feel like we might not need doubles afterall.  That is exactly what happened.  All three of those seeds, ended up winning, and the Hixson girls clinched their first District Championship since 2001.  

Here are the full results:

Hixson Girls def. CSAS Girls 5-1

Girls Singles:

Whitney Clack (H) def.Kirsten Johnson 8-1

Michelle Phillips (H) def.Yasmine Foster 8-2

Emily Gilreath (H) def. Sneha Mahesh 8-5

Haylee Gossett (H) def. Cadence Camp 9-7

Katie Foster (C) def. Maggie Ozborn 8-3

Corynne Schannuth (H) def. Alicia Lee 8-6

Doubles not needed.

Hixson Girls' Record:

10-4 (Overall); 9-0 (District 6-A/AA)

Wildcats March Past Patriots!

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Earlier today I posted the above picture on Facebook and billed today's match as "The Showdown at Warner Park".  I think it lived up to the billing.

I didn't post any details about yesterday's match.  I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever posted scores without saying anything about what happened.  Truth is the girls simply took care of business, and I was just too mad to post about the boys.  I thought they played Red Bank with no heart yesterday, and while they won, I was disappointed and frustrated.  

I challenged the boys today to show me they wanted to be serious contenders for the District Championship.  I was also abundantly clear that if they did not hustle and show me that they were willing to fight for every point, that I would forfeit their court.  Knowing full well the ramifications of forfeiting a court against a district rival such as CSAS.  Every single one of the boys responded positively to my challenge.  We met a slightly handicapped Patriot team (they were missing two of their top six), but the Hixson Boys took care of business with a decisive 7-2 victory and sole possession of first place in District 6-A/AA.  It very nearly was total domination as the the two courts we lost (#2 Singles and #1 Doubles) we lost 6-8.

I was so worried about my boys going in to today, I made a careless mistake.  I did not think the CSAS girls would pose a problem for our girls.  I was completely wrong!!  Those CSAS girls are young, but they are fighters.  We very nearly lost.  Big congratulations to Corynne Schannuth, who was the last girl still playing with the score tied at 4-4, and she came through with arguably the biggest win of her high school career: 8-6.  

Big day for Hixson Tennis, both our boys and girls are in first place in the district. Full results below:

Hixson Girls def. CSAS Girls 5-4

Kirstin Johnson (C) def. Whitney Clack 8-6

Michelle Phillips (H) def. Yasmine Foster 8-1

Sneha Mahesh (C) def. Haylee Gossett 8-6

Emily Gilreath (H) def. Cadence Camp 8-1

Allycia Lee (C) def. Maggie Ozborn 8-3

Corynne Schannuth (H) def. Katie Foster 8-6

Girls Doubles:

Clack/Phillips (H) def. Johnson/Y. Foster 8-2

Gossett/Gilreath (H) def. Lee/K. Foster 9-7

Mahesh/Camp (C) def. Ozborn/Schannuth 8-6

Hixson Boys def. CSAS Boys 7-2

Alex Condra (H) def. Visaal Sivakumar 9-7

Raymond Kim (C) def. Carl Phillips 8-6

Kevin Nguyen (H) def. Austin Azcona 8-2

Jacob Lindsey (H) def. Kevin Lee 8-3

Richard Vuong (H) def. Rupert Cong 8-1

Rivers De'Friese (H) def. Sean Kennon 8-2

Boys Doubles:

Sivakumar/Kim (C) def. Condra/Phillips 8-4

Nguyen/Vuong (H) def. Azcona/Lee 8-4

Lindsey/De'Friese (H) def. Cong/Kennon 8-2

Records:

Hixson Girls: 6-4 (Overall); 6-0 (6-A/AA)

Hixson Boys: 8-2 (Overall); 6-0 (6-A/AA)

UP NEXT: Thursday, April 11, East Hamilton @ Home.  Both our teams won in our first meeting, but you can bet the Hurricanes will be out for some revenge.  It will be an interesting match to be sure. Hixson has a giant bullseye on their back now that we are in first place.

Trip to Warner Park Ends in a Split.

First the good news.

But I'm going to be honest with you. If you had told me after our Red Bank Scrimmage (March 8) that we would be sitting here on March 20 and that my girls would still be undefeated, I would not have believed you. I do not know what happened that day, but these girls did not play well, and I was seriously worried about the rest of the season. They have proved me wrong-- the kind of wrong a coach loves to be, by the way!

With the exception of the top two seeds who are seniors, the Lady Patriots are a very young team. My girls aren't exactly veterans, but CSAS started two 8th graders and two Freshmen in their top six. This lack of experience really showed in doubles, as my girls swept all three doubles courts. Once they got to singles, the Lady Patriots were a little bit better, winning two of the six matches, and nearly winning a third. Hixson's Whitney Clack (Pictured Below) won a tiebreaker to win at the #1 singles spot. The match should not have been that close, as Whitney was up 7-4, and we all watched in horror as her opponent won the next four games, before Whit tied it up at 8-8-- Whew! Maggie Ozborn lost a close one, 6-8, but I thought both those girls were pretty evenly matched and neither of them ever had a big lead. Otherwise, there was very little drama on the day as far as the girls were concerned. Michelle Phillips, Haylee Gossett and Emily Gilreath all won their singles matches easily. Corynne Schannuth dug herself quite a hole at 2-5, and then fought back to make it respectable (losing 5-8).



On the Boys' side, quite a different story. We would have struggled to put games on the board for our side even at full strength. George Ozborn, who normally plays the #2 Seed, was out today with some sort of stomach bug. So any hopes of pulling off an upset were pretty much dashed from the start. Much like our boys dominated East Ridge yesterday, CSAS took care of business and won every single court. I did see some good tennis from our boys, but we were no match. I told our boys to try to learn from the other side, hopefully when we play them again, we'll be a little more prepared-- and maybe with George in the lineup, we might surprise them!


Here are the results:

Hixson Girls def. CSAS Girls, 7-2

Singles:

Whitney Clack (H) def. Cindy Ormaza, 9-8 (7-4)
Michelle Phillips (H) def. Maria Alley, 8-1
Haylee Gossett (H) def. Sneha Mahesh, 8-4
Kirsten Johnson (C) def. Corynne Schannuth, 8-5
Emily Gilreath (H) def. Lauren Emmett, 8-3
Katie Foster (C) def. Maggie Ozborn, 8-6

Doubles:

Clack/Phillips (H) def. Alley/Johnson, 8-5
Gossett/Schannuth (H) def. Ormaza/Emmett, 8-5
Gilreath/Ozborn (H) def. Foster/Cadence Camp, 8-4


Hixson Girls' Record:

4-0 (District 6A/AA); 4-0 (Overall)


CSAS Boys def. Hixson Boys, 9-0

Singles:

Jackson Lenoir (C) def. Dylan Millwood, 8-4
Ian Derthick (C) def. Cory Phillips, 8-1
Raymond Kim (C) def. Kevin Nguyen, 8-1
Raja Moughrabi (C) def. Jacob Lindsey, 8-2
Chandler Custer (C) def. Rivers DeFries, 8-3
Visaal Sivakumar (C) def. Nicholas Rodgers, 8-1

Doubles:

Lenoir/Moughrabi (C) def. Millwood/Phillips, 8-3
Derthick/Kim (C) def. Nguyen/Lindsey, 8-0
Custer/Sivakumar (C) def. DeFries/Rodgers, 8-2

Hixson Boyss' Record:

2-2 (District 6A/AA); 2-2 (Overall)

Up Next: Thursday against Cleveland at Lee University. Not sure what to expect as we have never played Cleveland since I've been the coach at Hixson. I would assume they are good, especially on the girls side.

Rough Day.

I'm scratching my head a little bit tonight. I fully expected to get a win today from my girls, and we almost pulled it off even while missing my #2 seed. A BIG "Way To Go!" to Abby O'Rear (pictured above) who got two varsity wins for the girls in singles and doubles. Abby found out about two hours before our scheduled match time that she would be playing in the number six slot in singles and the three slot in doubles, and she handled it beautifully. There were a couple of close matches in singles that got away from us, but we still had a chance with our #2 doubles team on the court and Hixson and CSAS tied at 4 wins apiece. Corynne and Haylee lost a match that looks like a blowout on paper (final score 2-8) but it was not for lack of effort. Down 2-5, the next three games all went to deuce. As you may or may not know, we play No-Ad scoring in High School Tennis, so at deuce the next point wins. It could have just as easily been 5-5, then who knows? Instead, the Lady Patriots won those three crucial points and the match was over. I told them that they should get a chance to play the same girls again on April 28. I think they'll be ready to even the score.

On the boys side of things, BIG thank-you to Jae Yoo and Eric Barr for getting a win at #3 doubles and keeping CSAS from scoring a shutout. To be honest, I'm a little excited by the results. Many of the matches were close. This is the defending District 6-A/AA championship team from last year that lost one guy from their top six. I was expecting to get blown out. Heck, our #2 doubles team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as they were up 5-2 before dropping 6 of the next 7 games. George Ozborn and Eric Barr battled ferociously against their opponents in singles. Both of those matches could have gone the other way with a few breaks. I guess my point is, we have three weeks before we see this team again. CSAS is not untouchable. It's up to our players to decide if they are going to close the gap.

Here are the results:

Girls Singles:

Candace Cline (H) def. Maria Ally 8-3
Cindy Omaza (C) def. Michelle Phillips 8-3
Allie Emmett (C) def. Haylee Gossett 8-5
Corynne Schannuth (H) def. Kelsey Williams 8-2
Sadie Bradshaw (C) def. Kayla Morgan 8-6
Abby O'Rear (H) def. Maylasia Burgers 8-3

Girls Doubles:

Ally/Ormaza (C) def. Cline/Phillips 8-6
Emmett/Williams (C) def. Gossett/Schannuth 8-2
Morgan/O'Rear (H) def. Bradshaw/Burgers 8-4

CSAS Boys def. Hixson Boys 8-1

Boys Singles:

Jackson Lenoir (C) def. Dylan Millwood 8-1
Ian Derthick (C) def. George Ozborn 8-5
Andrew Bell (C) def. Cory Phillips 8-3
Alex Evers (C) def. Myles Goforth 8-4
Raja Moughrabi (C) def. Eric Barr 8-6
Chandler Custer (C) def. Jae Yoo 8-3

Boys Doubles:

Lenoir/Derthick (C) def. Millwood/Goforth 8-3
Bell/Evers (C) def. Ozborn/Phillips 8-6
Barr/Yoo (H) def. Moughrabi/ Kolby Kendrick 8-4

Records:

Hixson Girls: 2-6 (Overall); 2-3 (District)
Hixson Boys: 4-3 (Overall); 3-2 (District)

Up Next: Monday, April 11 Vs. Ooltewah @ HOME. The Owls of Ooltewah always seem to have good team on the boys and girls side. I expect this year to be no different.

What a Week: CSAS, Rhea County & the Champions Tourney.

I know I've mentioned it before, but the Spring is a really busy time for me, so I am just now getting around to making a post even though we had two matches last week and the Champions Club Invitational. The only reason I've got time to do this is because our match with East Hamilton today was rained out. All the indoor courts were booked at the Racquet Club, so I got an impromptu afternoon off. I think the teams could use the day as well. We'll get back to it tomorrow.

It seems like a year ago, but a week ago today, we traveled back to Warner Park to play two very good CSAS squads for the second time this season. This match was supposed to be held at the Racquet Club, but our courts were still not ready. Coach Pate, a truly class act in high school athletics, was gracious enough to let us play at his home courts in lieu of rescheduling the date. Whitney Clack and Jonathan Craft were the only bright spots for either team, as CSAS showed why they are one of the teams to beat in our upcoming District tournament. Here are the results:

CSAS Girls Def. Hixson Girls 7-2

Girls Singles:

Kayla Kelly (C) def. Allison Cowart 8-0
Ahmee Kelly (C) def. Candace Cline (H) 8-2
Erin Mournier (C) def. Ashton Summers (H) 8-1
Whitney Clack (H) def. Maria Alley (C) 8-4
Cindy Ormaza (C) def. Torey Hart (H) 8-0
Hannah Byrne (C) def. Kayla Morgan (H) 8-0

Girls Doubles:

Mournier/Alley (C) def. Cowart/Summers (H) 8-5
Cline/Clack (H) def. Ormaza/Byrne (C) 8-4
Kelsey Williams/Allie Emmett (C) def. Hart/Morgan (H) 8-2

CSAS Boys def. Hixson Boys 6-3

Boys Singles:

Jackson Lenoir (C) def. George Ozborn (H) 8-2
Brian Wright (C) def. Dylan Millwood (H) 8-5
Alex Evers (C) def. Eric Barr (H) 8-3
Raja Moughrabi (C) def. Corey Phillips 8-2
Jonathan Craft (H) def. Raymond Kim 8-1
Colby Kendrick (C)def. Jae Yoo 8-4


Boys Doubles:

Evers/Moughrabi (C) def. Ozborn/Millwood (H) 8-6
Barr/Phillips (H) def. Kim/Chandler Custer (C) 8-4
Yoo/Craft (H) def. Calvin Bibbs-Lee/Justin Botting 8-7 (7-4)



Two days, later we took a trip up Hwy 27 to Dayton to play our second match versus Rhea County. The Boys and Girls took their lumps, but I felt everyone played well. Most impressive was Russ Rebennack (pictured above), who got his first varsity start in singles. He nearly pulled off the upset, losing 7-2 in a tiebreaker. Dylan Millwood (pictured below) also played a fantastic match, albeit a losing one. He too lost in a tiebreaker. This was the second meeting of the year for these two, and last time Rhea county's Jake Ricketts beat Dylan soundly 8-1. Nice show of improvement!



Here are the results:

Rhea County Girls defeat Hixson Girls 9-0

Girls Singls:

Ashley Stewart def. Allison Cowart 8-2
Kelsey Fredricks def. Candace Cline 8-2
Kaylee Cochran def. Ashton Summers 8-1
Kaylee Argo def. Whitney Clack 8-1
Addison Edwards def. Torey Hart 8-1
Kara McClendon def. Kayla Morgan 9-0

Girls Doubles:

Stewart/McClendon def. Cowart/Summers 8-5
Fredricks/Cochran def. Cline/Clack 8-1
Argo/Edwards def. Hart/Morgan 8-0

Rhea County Boys Defeat Hixson Boys 7-2

Boys Singles:

Dylan Coulter (RC) def. George Ozborn 8-3
Jake Ricketts (RC) def. Dylan Millwood 9-8 (7-0)
Wesley Sanders (RC) def. Corey Phillips 8-2
Jacob Davis (RC) def. Eric Barr 8-6
Zach Madewell (RC) def. Jae Yoo 8-1
Evan Smith (RC) def. Russ Rebennack 9-8 (7-2)

Boys Doubles:

Ozborn/Millwood (H) def. Davis/Smith 8-4
Phillips/Barr (H) def. Kyle Runyon/Austin Patton 8-4
Mitchell Barry/Ben Ross (RC) def. Yoo/Rebennack 8-5



Bright and early the next day, on Friday, we all gathered for our first invitational tournament since I took the job here at Hixson. The Champions Club (pictured above) has been hosting this tournament for several years. It is my understanding that Hixson may have taken part in it before, but it has been several years since our last appearance.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the tournament, there are two draws: A & B. The eight teams in the A Divison play regular single elimination tournament for each seed with a consolation draw (with every player guaranteed three singles matches and every doubles team is guaranteed three matches as well). The level of play is generally higher in the A Division, and it is a goal of mine to get our teams to that level. The B Divison was comprised of four teams and used a round robin format for each seed. Our Girls team got to play three teams they'd never faced before in Walker Valley, McMinn and Grace Academy. Our Boys were not quite so lucky, as they got to play only one new team in Grace Academy, along with CSAS and Rhea County (can you believe that?).

Too many matches for me to post all the scores, so I'll just mention that the girls finished third out of the four teams in their group and the boys finished in the cellar. I don't like to make excuses, but I'm pretty sure both CSAS and Rhea County were better than a couple of the teams in the A Division, and I was missing one of my top six. All things considered, I'm pretty happy about the experience gained by both my teams. I saw some amazing play from just about everybody on the team. Next year they will know what to expect, and we'll certainly be better prepared for our District Tourney in a couple of weeks.

Also, I would like to publicly thank Richard Millwood (Dylan's dad) for treating everyone who played in the tourney to a post-tournament dinner at Ci-Ci's Pizza. After playing six matches in two days, the kids certainly deserved it!

Up Next: Central at Lakeside Park. Our second match versus this District opponent. Our boys need to be focused, they won the first time, but I'm sure the Pounders would like to get a little revenge. Our girls nearly won with only five girls in the line-up. A sweep is possible!

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)