By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Shelby Bondurant and Molly Kizer quickly hit the ‘reset’ button.
The Union City High School doubles team immediately turned the page from the disappointment of a team loss in the Class A state finals the day before, winning twice Thursday to earn a spot in the individual state championships for the second straight year.
The seasoned senior tandem – state runners-up last season – will play Summertown’s Emma Perry and Annalee Kelly in a 9 a.m. final Friday after dispatching South Greene’s Ryleigh Gregg and Macey Waddell and Signal Mountain’s Bindi Patel and Brooke Martin in quarterfinals and semis, respectively.
Bondurant and Kizer cruised in Round 1, winning 6-2, 6-1, then took care of business against a formidable SM duo they’d beaten in the team semifinals by a 7-6 (7-2) and 7-5 score.
The second of those two matches was moved indoors at Murfreesboro’s Adams Tennis Center due to rain that began falling two games into the competition.
It was an impressive feat for the UC girls – especially after an emotionally and physically draining setback on Wednesday, during which they dropped a grueling team finals match to Summertown for the third consecutive year.
“We kicked it in and made the shots we had to make at the most critical times,” Lady Twister head coach Tom Sisco said. “I thought we were still a little off in both matches – and I genuinely believe that was left over from yesterday when it was so draining physically and mentally on the girls. Still, the were able to refocus on their individual goal.
“We have considerable physical fatigue, and we have some soreness and some blisters. We’ll try to recover and rest as best we can tonight, show up tomorrow, and give it our best.
“There’s no doubt we have the physical skills to win a championship.”
Thursday’s afternoon match was highly competitive from the start, going to deuce in five games in the opening set. Bondurant and Kizer ran off four consecutive points in the tie-breaker, then claimed the set 7-2 when Shelby put away an overhead slam.
The Twister girls twice broke SM’s service to assume a 3-0 second-set lead before the Lady Eagles forged a 5-all deadlock with the aid of a handful of UC unforced errors. Another service break gave the Tornadoes a leg-up, though, before Kizer – with several big serves – closed out the match.
“We knew coming in the Signal Mountain bunch would give us all we wanted,” Sisco added. “Our match with them in the team semifinals was actually more competitive than the score indicates, and they had two quality players.
“Us having played an extra match in the team portion while they just played once helped them, I thought. We had several long sets in our finals match that took a lot out of us with such a short turnaround.”
UC was in total control of their morning match against South Greene, with the combination of booming serves, well-placed groundstrokes, and great net play by Bondurant and Kizer.
The Twister duo won the final four games of the second set to close out the match in convincing fashion.
Lady Tornado freshman Emma Mobbs continued to show signs of considerable promise before dropping her quarterfinal singles match in three sets to Cannon Country’s Jenna Bush.
Mobbs – the first-ever Union City female to make the state tourney in singles play – was especially impressive in the opening set, winning the first five games before closing out a 6-1 triumph.
Bush then found her groove, however, and took the second two sets by identical 6-2 scores and claimed the match against the tiring Mobbs.
“Her future with our program is obviously very bright,” Sisco said of Mobbs, who played at the No. 5 seed all season before winning both the district and regional championships. “She had a great start in her match, but a couple of things went against her, and that momentum just snowballed.”