By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
MURFREESBORO — What worked for Union City before, worked for the Lady Tornadoes again.
Showcasing its quality lineup depth once more, the UC girls earned the right to play for the Class A State Team Tennis Championship by besting Unicoi County 4-2 in the second of two semifinal matches Tuesday.
Union City, which finished as state runners-up to Chattanooga Christian Academy in 1999 and 2000, can claim the program’s first-ever championship with a win over Summertown Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Adams Tennis Complex.
Summertown – last year’s second-place finisher – blanked Watertown 4-0 in Tuesday’s other Final 4 match.
As they did in the sectionals against Madison Academic Magnet, the Lady Tornadoes rolled to impressive singles wins at the 3-, 4- and 5-seeds against Unicoi to seize a commanding 3-0 lead in the match.
After the Blue Devils drew to within 3-2 with victories at the top two singles seeds, UC closed out the match – as it did vs. MAM – when Callicott and Molly Kizer romped to an 8-1 triumph against Lily Mefford and Karina Lopez at the No. 2 doubles spot.
Union City’s top doubles tandem of Annie Wade and Shelby Bondurant was also on the way to a win, up 5-3 on Jordan Havert and Kaylee Degennaro when Mefford committed a service double-fault to give the Callicott/Kizer tandem the deciding win.
“Our depth is something we’ve talked a lot about – both publicly and to our girls,” UC head coach Tom Sisco said. “There’s obviously a great importance in all of our matches, but we’re so deep, we know if we can win those matches at the three, four and five singles spots, we’ll put our two doubles teams up against anybody and take our chances.”
For the second straight outing, the Lady Tornadoes had to endure a significant delay in play – this time due to a shower that delayed the beginning of Tuesday’s match more than an hour.
UC was unfazed, however, playing with great confidence and building early momentum behind the play of Bondurant, Kizer and Davey Frankum.
Bondurant’s powerful ground strokes were too much for Degennaro in a dominating 6-2, 6-0 victory at the three-spot. Bondurant actually dropped the first two games of the match before a barrage of service aces ignited a run of 12 straight winning games.
Fourth-seeded Kizer was also spectacular, winning convincingly (6-1, 6-0) against Lopez.
Perhaps the most-critical victory came at No. 5 where the freshman Frankum won a first set tie-breaker (7-2) and then finished off Lily Hollenbeck 6-1 in the second set. Frankum took the tie-breaker with seven straight points after dropping the first two.
“I really think that might’ve been the key,” Sisco agreed while discussing Frankum’s clutch play. “Her match put us firmly in control, I thought.
“And the way both our doubles teams played was very impressive. Our No. 1 (Wade and Bondurant) was on their way, too, and really played with a lot of fearlessness.
“I was also impressed with how we handled the delay. We were truly only about a minute before starting the match when the rain came, and then we didn’t know if we were going to play indoors or outdoors. The girls kept their composure. They kept their energy level high, and I was concerned about that because their adrenaline level was so high beforehand.”
UC put up a good fight at the top two singles seeds before Wade lost to Mefford 7-5, 6-2, and Callicott dropped a three-setter to Havert 3-6, 6-4, 0-6. Just a sophomore, Mefford will play in the state individual tournament on Thursday.
Sisco said he believes his squad is a worthy participant in Wednesday’s title match.
“I believe we’re playing as well as we’ve played all season. If we can ride that momentum into tomorrow, I believe we can compete with anybody, he claimed.”