Friday, May 02, 2008
(Last modified: 2008-05-02 23:40:40)
 

Source: The Greeneville Sun

By JOE BYRD

Sports Writer

Two doubles teams and one singles player from Greene County have earned a spot in the Region 1-AA Tennis Tournament.

Chuckey-Doak's Corlette Murphy and Christy Johnson and Black Knights James Durham and Corey Jenkins along with South Greene's Rachel Pulliam all finished second in their respective District 1-AA Tournament matchups on Friday at the Greene County Tennis Center, booking their spots in the region.

"We were very fortunate to have some kids that cared about tennis and practiced hard," said Chuckey-Doak coach Ben Murphy.

The girls' doubles final was a matchup of the top two seeded teams in the tournament.

No. 2 Johnson and Murphy finished second in girls doubles after falling in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 to the Elizabethton duo of top-seed Jessica Brumit and Janey Robinson.

Murphy and Johnson took a thriller just to reach the championship match. They had to go extra sets against Unicoi County's Vanessa Bryant and Mary Beth Shults before winning 6-1, 3-6, 7- 6 (7-4).

South Greene's doubles team of Ashley Feguson and Amanda Bowman reached the tournament semifinals, but lost 6-1, 6-0 to the eventual champions.

Chris Brumit and Ricky Jones made it a clean sweep of doubles championships for Elizabethton, defeating Jenkins and Durhman 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

Jenkins and Durham booked their trip to the region with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sullivan North's Matt Goins and Mikey Hall in the semifinals.

Unicoi County's Kelby Marston won the girls' singles title 6-3, 6-1 over Pulliam.

Pulliam rallied from a set down to reach the final match. Johnson County's Caitlin Witt won the first set 3-6, but Pulliam regrouped with sets of 6-2 and 6-1 to take the match.

"Rachel was up and down throughout the year," said South Greene coach Shawn Jones. "If she keeps her head straight, plays without being nervous, she can go down there and compete, maybe go on to the state tournament."

Unicoi County's Caleb Pate won the boys' singles 6-2, 6-2 over No. 1 seed Wade Tugman of Johnson County.

The Region 1-AA Tournament is May 12 at Frank Lorino Park in Morristown.

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