Shelbyville Times-Gazette: High School Sports: Eagles fall in district tennis finals (05/06/05)

Shelbyville's tennis team finished runner-up in the District 8-AAA tournament Thursday afternoon in Tullahoma. Team members are, first row, from right, Ross Beavers, Zach King, and Andy Delk. Back row, from left, Bo Lamb, Bryan Price, Scott Anderton and Justin Gordon.
(T-G Photo by Gary Johnson)

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Shelbyville's Golden Eagles fell short of the District 8-AAA team tennis title, dropping a 4-1 decision to host Tullahoma Thursday afternoon.

Tullahoma claimed four of five single matches to claim the championship.

"I think Tullahoma's boys were hungry to get some of the credit that was being passed around after their girls upset our team yesterday," Shelbyville coach Doyle Hutton remarked. "They simply outplayed us today."

The Wildcats are led by Halsey Werlein, who finished 2004 ranked 16th in the state in the 16-year-old division.

Werlein defeated Shelbyville's Ross Beavers 8-3 despite losing the first two games of the match.

"Ross was really striking the ball well," Hutton said. "He and Halsey were popping that ball hard all over the place in extended rallies. It was more like college-level tennis."

Shelbyville's Zach King won 8-2 over Justin Lyons.

"Zach could be the No. 1 player on just about any other team in our district," Hutton said. "He hadn't lost a singles match all year and usually is the first off the court."

Hutton sees some promising talent returning for the Eagles.

"Bryan Price has been tough for us all season. He was not even seeded last year and stepped up to play as our No. 3 singles player this year. Justin Gordon, just a freshman, lost to this opponent 8-1 at their last meeting, but almost pulled out his match. He is a promising young talent that is going to be very successful in the next three years.

"I have no complaints," Hutton said. "Three of my five top seeds were not even seeded last year, so we're a young team experience-wise. We have another unseeded player, Scott Anderton, who has come on to play tennis late in his high school career, but his work ethic is going to make him a challenger for one of the seeded positions next year."

This closes Shelbyville's season in team play. Individual district tournament play will be held Monday and Tuesday.

Singles

Halsey Werline (T) d. Ross Beavers 8-3; Zach King (S) d. Justin Lyons 8-2; Justin Groce (T) d. Bryan Price 8-2; Tyler Hatfield (T) d. Justin Gordon 8-6; Chance Askins (T) d. Andy Delk 8-5.

Doubles

Werline/Groce (T) led Beavers/King 6-3 when play suspended.