PREP TENNIS: Battle’s Girls, Gate City’s Boys Advance to VHSL State Tournament

BY JIMMY MOORE
Sports Correspondent

WISE, Va. – John Battle’s girls and Gate City’s boys had no problem Tuesday at the finals of the Region D Tournament on the tennis courts at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

Both schools punched their ticket to next month’s Virginia High School League state tournament.

The Trojans’ Emerald Lauzon, whose record is unblemished this year, led her team to a 5-0 victory in the team competition. The senior also qualified for state in both the singles and doubles competition.

Lauzon defeated Coeburn’s Kayla Swiney 6-0, 6-0 in singles, then teamed with Carly Johnson in doubles to end the season for Castlewood’s Lorren Evans and Kayla Gordon 6-0, 6-0.

Lauzon is hoping the Trojans have a little better luck at state this time around. In 2006, they were eliminated in the semifinals by Gate City.

“We have four seniors and this is our year,” said Lauzon. “We have a good group of girls that are willing to go out for everything.

“Hopefully this year’s going to be our year, especially since we are going in three events this year.”

The Trojans’ first year head coach, Randy Coleman, also pointed to the experience of his team as a definite plus heading to Radford next month.

“We’re just excited about the opportunity to go up the road and see how we compete up there,” said Coleman. “I felt like our girls had trained hard all year.

“Our expectations were to come out and play hard and play well [today]. We felt like we were favored but you still have to show up and play hard because everybody wants to win.”

Gate City’s boys were unbeaten (8-0) in the first year of competition in the newly-formed Clinch Mountain District and they continued their winning ways in Tuesday’s finals.

The Blue Devils’ Dalton Moore, Tyler DeBoard, Jordan Owens, J.T. McConnell and Evan DeBoard dominated their respective opponents in the finals to turn back Haysi, 5-0.

Gate City’s No. 1 player, Chad Sheppard, defeated Haysi’s Nick Yates 6-0, 6-2, to capture the singles title. Moore and Tyler DeBoard combined in the doubles to defeat the team of Steven Wood and Nick Austin from Haysi 6-0, 6-0.

Gate City head coach Steve Shockley is hoping another year of experience under their belt will carry his team into the finals after losing to George Mason in last year’s state semifinals.

“The kids played extremely well but we just ran into a buzz saw,” said Shockley of last year’s trip to state. “The kids have put in a lot of time and effort.

“They’ve really dedicated themselves to getting their game better. Every single time they walk off the court, they want to walk off having played better. I think they have achieved that this year.”

“They’re focused, dedicated and have one goal in mind,” added Shockley. “We’ll see how that comes out here in about three weeks.”

Sheppard, who made it to the VHSL semifinals last year in singles, said his match in Tuesday’s finals wasn’t as easy as it appeared. He’s also hoping his team’s experience can carry them to the title this time around.

“We’ve got everybody back except one guy,” said Sheppard. “So it looks very promising. We feel pretty confident against whoever we have to play.”