Kilgore routs J'ville; visits Lindale today

Photo by Lester Murray GET IT, CHELSEY! — Kilgore High School tennis player Chelsey Cox (above) reaches for a ball during Saturday's matchup here on the KHS tennis courts against Jacksonville. Kilgore outgunned the Indians 15-5, and won the match, 10-1. The Bulldogs, the defending fall-season district champions, were to face Lindale today in what many consider the biggest matchup in District 14-4A in the fall season. Kilgore's junior varsity hosts Lindale on Thursday. KHS tennis is coached by Jason Maroney, and is the only sport at the school that has two official "seasons:" a team-oriented fall season and a more individually-oriented spring season. After getting an impressive win here over Jacksonville on Saturday morning, the Kilgore High School tennis team was hoping for an encore — maybe an even more impressive win — today.

Kilgore beat Jacksonville on Saturday in a match that had been scheduled for last week, but was postponed due to the weather off Hurricane Ike. The Bulldogs beat Jacksonville 10-1, officially going 15-5 in Saturday's matchups.

Today, KHS was to visit Lindale, a huge match in District 14-4A. Kilgore is last year's fall season district champion, and Lindale is again one of the district's most talented teams. "It is a highly anticipated match," KHS coach Jason Maroney said.

Against Jacksonville on Saturday, Kilgore's boys players won seven of the nine matches in which they were involved, and the girls won seven of their 10 matches, Maroney said.

Highlights in particular were by girls No. 1 Haley Smith and by boys standout Jody Madding. Smith beat Jacksonville No. 1 Katy Day, whom Maroney called one of the top three girls singles players in the district, 6-0, 6-1, and Madding beat Dylan Hanna in an entertaining 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 decision.

In other results:

• Boys singles — Kilgore's Trevar Compton lost a hard-fought match to Mercer Day, 6-3, 4-6, 5- 7; Josh Way lost to Jacksonville's David Houser, 6- 2, 4-6, 0-6; Kilgore's Kilgore's Josh Bailey beat Michael Stirneman, 6-2, 6-2; Kade Bittick beat Jacksonville's Morgan Weaver, 6-3, 6-2; and Eric Applegate beat Kylie Crosby, 61, 6-2.

• Boys doubles: Compton and Applegate beat Day and Houser, 6-3, 7-6 (1); Madding and Bailey beat Hanna and Stirneman, 6-1, 7-6 (3); and Way and Berryhill beat Crosby and Weaver, 6-3, 6-0.

• Girls singles: Callie Cunyus beat Jacksonville's Taylor Claiborne, 6-2, 6-0; Neisha Nays beat Kilgore's Meredith Gregg by default; Chelsey Cox lost to Jacksonviille's Melody Melvin, 4-6, 5-7; Kilgore's Cailtind Trowbridge beat Elisha Carpenter, 6-0, 6-1; Shawna Bass beat Jacksonville's Kourtney Tucker, 6-0, 6-0; and Naomi Worden beat Jacksonville's Emily Westbrook, 6-0, 6-1.

• Girls doubles: Smith and Cunyus beat Day and Claiborne, 6-1, 6-1; Trowbridge and Bass lost to Melvin and Nays, 6-7 (6), 6-2, 5-7; Gregg and Cox beat Chancey and Carpenter, 6-0, 6-3.

• The only mixed doubles match of the day went to Kilgore, thanks to Kade Bittick and Worden beat Westbrook and Hugghins, 6-0, 6-0.

The KHS junior varsity also picked up a win recently, beating Van, 23-5, on Thursday. Kilgore's JV hosts Lindale on Thursday at 4 p.m.