Monday, September 24, 2001

The Natchez Democrat

Natchez is tearing it up in mixed doubles tennis. Two mixed

doubles squads of varying skill levels competed and won this weekend’s

USA League Tennis Mixed Doubles State Championship held at Duncan

Park.

They will now advance to the Southern Mixed Doubles Sectionals

in Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct. 12-15.

The 6.5 team from Natchez won the tournament by taking two

matches on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday.

The team consists of members: Dick and Eli Whitaker, Donald

and Karen Jones, Vincent Washington, Kally Hodgson, Simmons Iles

and Cynthia Parker-Brumfield.

The Natchez 5.5 squad also won by getting through a tough round

robin format that saw five of the six teams have to settle the

issue Sunday by going through a stringent tiebreaker process.

The 5.5 players are: Michelle and Hayden Kaiser, Missy Brown,

Louellen Alford, Deana Rush, Scott Johnson, Rocky and Susan Kettering,

Joe Garrity and Jamie Saunders.

&uot;We’re all ecstatic,&uot; 5.5 team captain Missy Brown

said. &uot;As far as we know this is the best showing from Natchez

ever. We’ve got three teams from the Southwest District of the

state going to sectionals and one person on the 7.5 team from

Fernwood is Kirby Watson, so Natchez is well-represented this

year.&uot;

Brown said these events were usually dominated by Jackson-area

players, but not so this team.

&uot;Everybody played well and I know we’ll keep it going

in Tennessee next month,&uot; Brown added.

The annual USTA-sponsored tournament which is held often here

in Natchez attracted some 41 pairs of players which competed in

various different skill level divisions.