By By Jeff Byrd / sports editor
June 6, 2003
Thanks to the play of sophomores Charlotte Heidelberg and Megan Chivas, the Meridian Community College women's tennis team enjoyed a stellar season on the courts.
Last month, Coach Wanda McPhail's Lady Eagles capped their season by finishing seventh at the NJCAA Women's Division II National Championship Tournament at the Brazos Valley Sports Foundation in College Station, Texas.
Temple College out of Temple, Texas, won the team national championship with 53 points. Wallace State-Hanceville out of Hanceville, Ala., captured second, and Barton Community College out of Kansas was third.
The MCC team totaled 231⁄2 match points to rank seventh, one of the best rankings ever in the school's history. It was also five spots better than in-state rival Copiah-Lincoln Community College, which ended with 171⁄2 points.
McPhail thanked her sophomore stars in Heidelberg, Chivas and Amanda Carden for help leading the team.
Heidelberg, who was MCC's No. 1 player and who won the Region 23 title at the Northeast Tennis Complex in April, was named to the All-America team. Heidelberg reached the round of 16 at Texas A&M before running into Melissa Cansado.
Heidelberg will play next season for Southwest Baptist University in Missouri.
Chivas, from Stone County, reached the quarterfinals of the No. 2 draw. She got there by grinding out a tough three-set match over Lewis &Clark's Erin Sibley.
Carden won two matches in her No. 3 draw. She reached the quarterfinals following a pair of straight-set wins in the opening two rounds.
In the quarters, she ran into No. 1-seed Amanda Wood of Temple. Wood went on to win the National No. 3 draw, all in straight sets.
Both Carden and Chivas are still undecided on where they will play next year.
No. 4 player Bree Roberts won a pair of matches to reach the quarterfinals. She lost in the round of eight to the top-seeded player in the No. 4 flight Ivie Taylor of Temple.
Jillian Foster gutted out a pair of three-set victories to reach the quarterfinals in the No. 5 draw.
Foster beat Hall 6-0, 2-6, 6-4. She was beaten by No. 2 seed Lindsay Hunter of Mesa, Arz., in the quarterfinal round.
Melissa Kimbriel was beaten in the first round, she but fought back and accounted herself well by reaching the finals of the consolation bracket. Kimbriel, a Newton County product, won two matches to reach the finals against Heather Heltzel of Pima County, Arz.
In doubles competition, Heidelberg and Chivas won their first round match to reach the quarters, but they ran into national No. 3 seed Melissa Cansado and Erin Sibley of Lewis and Clark.