NATCHEZ &045; A year after losing to Natchez early in the tournament, Diamondhead bounced back to down the locals 2-1 in the 7.5 finals of the USA League Tennis Mississippi State Mixed Doubles Championships at the Duncan Park Tennis Center Sunday.

With victories in the first two matches, captain Kristin Beddoe knew her team was guaranteed a spot at the Southern Sectionals in Chattanooga, Tenn., next month without playing the last match, which they eventually lost to Natchez’s Darla Vincent and Clark McCain, 4-6, 7-6, 1-0.

&uot;That first set stayed on serve until the last two games when they took them,&uot; said Vincent, who captained the Natchez team. &uot;The second set started the same way, and we played that tiebreak to win. (Diamondhead) may have not been playing as hard because they knew they had already won.&uot;

Suzan Hogue and Adam Cardneaux lost to Jack Robinson and Liz Bell, 6-2, 6-2, for Diamondhead’s first win of the finals. Then Greg Olivier and Chonne Tyndall knocked off Kevin Flowers and Nancy Laird, 6-2, 6-2, to take the 2-love lead.

&uot;I know from playing him last year that Jack is real good. He’s got good hands and is very quick,&uot; Vincent said. &uot;From watching Kevin and Nancy’s match, they couldn’t get the ball away from (Olivier) enough. He was pretty quick too.&uot;

Even if Natchez would have taken either one of the other matches, chances are sectionals were not in the cards since it falls on the same weekend as the Great Mississippi Balloon Race.

&uot;We got lucky because we had a loss, but were able to come back,&uot; Vincent said. &uot;We didn’t win, but it was still a successful tournament for us.&uot;