Blissit, doubles team earn chance at State
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Top Bryant High School singles player Paul Blissit and the doubles team of Kevin Teeter and David Cherry qualified for the Class AAAAA State tennis championships with their performances at the AAAAA-South Conference matches held Thursday, April 18.
As a team, the Bryant boys finished third. The Lady Hornets tied for fifth in the league.
Blissit was the singles runner-up in the conference, losing in the finals to Clark Brown of Lake Hamilton 3-6,4-6. He had opened the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Sheridan’s Michael Mouton, advanced past Charles Poe of Lake Hamilton 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, then earned a berth in the finals by knocking off Texarkana’s Josh Potter 6-3, 6-4.
Teeter and Cherry earned a first-round bye then defeated Matt Gore and Brooks Livers of Benton to qualify for State. In the semifinals, they fell to El Dorado’s Doug Benson and Kevin Edwards, 4-6, 6-2, 2-6. The third-place match was a nail-biter but the Bryant duo prevailed 9-8 on a tiebreaker over George Makris and Greg Fox of Pine Bluff.
Also competing for the Hornets were Dylan Meeker who fell in the opening round of singles play, 1-6, 0-6, to Michael Detwiler of El Dorado.
In girls play, Erin Garner won her first round match 6-7, 6-0, 6-4 over Sheridan’s Brittney Pumphrey. Nicole Freeman of Lake Hamilton then got the best of her 6-1, 6-1.
Amanda Story was ousted in the first round of singles play 4-6, 5-7 by El Dorado’s Henley Dwight.
In doubles play, Betsy Dell and Shelly Cozart combined to eliminate Benton’s Kendra Smith and Poonam Patil, 6-0, 6-0. In the second round, however, the El Dorado team of Elizabeth Mattocks and Lacy Nunnally did them in, 6-4, 6-1.
Autumn Metheny teamed up with Hanna Campbell for Bryant. They absorbed a 4-6, 2-6 loss in the first round to Pine Bluff’s team of Morgan Maxwell and Lauren Watkins.
State play was scheduled for April 25-26.
