Off to regionals for five Bulldogs
HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS/ DISTRICT 12-4A TOURNAMENT
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

Photo by Lester Murray SERVING IT UP - Kilgore tennis standout Jody Madding fires a serve downcourt in a recent match here. Madding and his partner Josh Bailey won the boys doubles division of the District 12-4A tournament on Wednesday, and are two of five KHS tennis players making the trip to Denton later this month for regionals. Also going for KHS will be Haley Smith, Trevar Compton and Callie Cunyus.

Members of the Kilgore High School tennis team can hold their heads high today after doing very, very well in the District 12-4A tennis tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Bulldogs qualified five players - a singles player and two sets of doubles players - for the regional tournament, to be played at the University of North Texas at Denton later this month.

On the way to Denton will be girls single Haley Smith, who beat the district's top seed, Henderson's Madison Phenix, on Wednesday to win the 12-4A girls singles crown. Joining her will be teammates Josh Bailey and Jody Madding, who took first place in the boys doubles competition, and also Callie Cunyus and Trevar Compton, who brought home second place in mixed doubles.

Also, Kilgore's girls won the district team trophy, beating Nacogdoches by a half-point, and the boys finished second as a team.

Smith's feat - beating former state qualifier Phenix - was huge for Kilgore, a statement win. Smith had to beat four opponents to get there. She defeated Marshall's Amanda McMinn, 6-1, 6-1; got by Hallsville's Leslie Maldonado, 6-0, 6-2; beat Nac's Jillian Verrett , 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals; and beat Phenix 6-2, 6-1 for the title.

Also in girls singles play for KHS, Emily Spence finished fifth. She beat Marshall's Paige Magourik, 6-0, 6-0; lost to Nac's Holly Middlebrook, 3-6, 3-6; beat Jacksonville's Taylor Claiborne, 6-1, 6-0; and beat Pine Tree's Holly Fountain, 7-5, 6-3 to claim fifth.

In boys doubles, Madding and Bailey also had to work their way through four different opponents. They beat Jacksonville's topseeded team of Hanna and Hugghins, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-3, in the finals.

Also representing KHS in boys doubles were Joe Worden and Ethan High, who picked up a pair of wins on the day over teams from Marshall and Henderson.

Cunyus and Compton have done well each time they've played together, and this tournament was no exception. They had a firstround bye, then beat a Whitehouse team in the second round and a team from Henderson in round three. In the finals, Compton and Cunyus fell a bit short, losing to Nac's David Ballenger and Lucinda Fernandez, 1-6, 2-6. And then, the Kilgore team had to hold off two of their own. They were challenged to a playback over second place by teammates Shelby Duncan and Eric Applegate. They got by their teammates, 6-1, 6-2, to earn the trip to regionals. Applegate and Duncan had a nice showing, too, winning two matches before losing to Ballenger and Fernandez, and their only other loss was to Compton and Cunyus.

The girls doubles team of Emily Mitis and Brittany Conner just missed out on qualifying for regionals, finishing third, but coach Jason Maroney complimented them for playing well in the tournament. They had a first-round bye, and beat a team from Marshall before losing to a Nac team in the semifinals. They bounced back, though, beating the Ford-Kidwell duo from Whitehouse, 6-3, 6-2, in the matchup for third place.

Also representing KHS in girls doubles play were Meredith Gregg and Lauren Terry, who had one win, a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Copeland and Beasley from Whitehouse.

Josh Way finished fourth in the boys singles division. He won his first two matches, beating Jacksonville's David Houser, 6-4, 6-4, and Nac's Austin Dillan, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) before losing to a pair of Whitehouse players. Kade Bittick won two matches for Kilgore. He beat Marshall's John Hightower, 6-0, 6-0, and also defeated Pine Tree's Blake Lever, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Thanks to Jason Maroney for providing information for this story.