By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
April 18, 2004
When the Meridian Community College women's tennis team went to bed on Friday night, they had their collective backs up against the wall.
The defending Region 23/MACJC champs trailed Hinds by four points, Jones by two and were locked in a three-way tie for third.
The Lady Eagles threw it into high gear on Saturday morning, picking up 17 second-day points on the way to winning the championship here at the Northeast Tennis Complex on Saturday afternoon.
Meridian finished with a two-day total of 27 points, while Hinds Community College was second with 20 and Jones County Junior College was third with 16. All three teams qualify for the NJCAA Division II National Tournament in College Station, Texas beginning on May 2.
There were three key matches that really began to put the momentum in Meridian's court.
The first came from an unlikely source.
Each win is worth one point. But, if you receive byes up to your first match and then win that match, you receive a point for each of the byes. With only five competitors in No. 6 singles, Clearman received two byes before taking the 6-1, 6-4 win over Brittany Wilburn of Itawamba.
Clearman fell to Jenci Bowen of Jones 6-2, 6-1 in the finals.
Another big match for Meridian was the No. 2 singles, which saw freshman Amy Cole take a 6-2, 7-5 win over Hinds' Ney Ney Foster.
While it was a two-set win, Cole said the victory was not an easy one.
She trailed 5-4 in the second set and was in danger of seeing the match go to a deciding third set.
The most exciting match of the day was a grueling three-set win by Amy Frazier over Hinds' Jenny Farris in the semifinals of No. 3 singles that took four hours and 15 minutes. Frazier then went on to beat Copiah-Lincoln's Mary McCombs 6-1, 7-5 in the finals.
In her win over Farris, Frazier lost the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker, before bouncing back to win 6-4, 6-3.
Frazier said that she became more determined after losing the first set.
Brett Anderson of Hinds won the No. 1 singles 6-1, 6-2 over Jordan Ladner of Jones, while Kimbriel rallied to a three-set win over Gulf Coast's Brittany Allen in the No. 4 singles finals. Kimbriel lost the first set 6-4, then won the second set 7-5 before cruising in the third set 6-1.
Meridian's Melissa Kimbriel won the No. 5 singles 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 over Laurie Black of Itawamba.
Gulf Coast's Nieve Cleary and Sarah Garman also qualified for the National Tournament by winning the No. 1 doubles title over Ashley Hall and Sadie Corban of Copiah-Lincoln, 6-1, 7-5.
Frazier and Britley Kimbriel beat Ashley Hughes and Carrie Clark of Jones 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 2 doubles finals, while MCC's Melissa Kimbriel and Belle Naugher won the No. 3 doubles 6-2, 6-4 over Brittany Crouch and Amanda Wiggs of Hinds.