Aiken sends two state champion teams to regional championships
7/22/2008 7:49 PM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend



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Two Aiken tennis teams will represent South Carolina at the Team Tennis sectional championships in Mobile, Ala., next month, where champions from nine Southern states will vie for the regional crown. A third Aiken team barely missed making it a clean Aiken sweep, coming in second - just five games short.

Houndslake's Hounds claimed their state championship in the finals of the 14-and-under intermediate division, beating a team from Hilton Head in the title match 30-13. The Odell Weeks 12-and-under advanced team claimed its second consecutive berth at sectionals by beating the other team in its flight three consecutive times.

The Hounds consists of John Boone, Megan Burke, Elizabeth Butler, Chris Fairchild, Nikki Fischbach, Rachael Perkins and Alex Poda. This is the second state championship for Burke, Fischbach and Poda, as they were on the team that won the state title in the 12-and-under intermediate division and placed second at the sectionals in 2006.

The Odell Weeks team includes Kayla Calvert, Savannah Gantt, Lenah Monosky, Jordan Monosky, Winston Nguyen, Neal Patel, Ashley Tam and Zach Thatcher. Gantt and Thatcher were also on the 2006 champion team, and Thatcher was on last year's Odell Weeks team.

The Hounds' coach/captain is Steve Poda; Fran Poda is co-captain. They are also coached by Arturo Costa, tennis professional at Houndslake Country Club. The Odell Weeks team is captained by Mike Monosky and Lori Thatcher and coached by Mark Calvert, tennis professional at the H. Odell Weeks Tennis Center.

The second-place FutureFederers, also of Houndslake, include McLeod Barber, John Callicott, Drew Emory, Taylor Fischbach, Tracey Hoel, Sabrina Leguizamon, Savina Patheja, Christopher Plummer, Alex Sklizovic, Aaron Sklizovic, Preston Tiffany and Marko Zotovic. They are captained by John Tiffany and coached by Costa.

"I am just so happy for these kids," said Steve Poda of his Hounds team. "They came here with a goal - to win the state championship and go back to Alabama. I felt good about our chances in this tournament because I believe in them and what they can do. It's the way we won that completely blew me away."

The Hounds torched their way to the title, coming just two games shy of a perfect tournament score as they plowed mercilessly through champion teams from Lexington, Camden, Bluffton and Hilton Head.

A team match consists of five one-set matches - boys' singles, girls' singles, boys' doubles, girls' doubles and mixed doubles. Each plays a six-game set, for a maximum team score of 30. The goal is to win as many games as possible, while allowing as few as possible. After a round-robin rotation, the team winning the most games wins.

The Hounds' first match was against the defending state champions from Lexington. They defeated Lexington 28-16, then proceeded to dismantle teams from Camden (30-4) and Bluffton (30-2). At the end of the first day they had won their flight and were awaiting the winner of the other flight, which turned out to be the Racquet Club Villains, from Hilton Head. The Hounds took the title match 30-13.

For more information on the Aiken Junior Tennis League, visit www.aikenjtl.org.

<Caption>Submitted photo

The 14-and-under intermediate team from Houndslake had a near-perfect tournament score, winning 118 out of a possible 120 games. Pictured are (left to right) John Boone , Steve Poda, Alex Poda, Fran Poda, Nikki Fischbach, Rachael Perkins, Megan Burke, and Fran Poda. Kneeling is Chris Fairchild. Not pictured is Elizabeth Butler.</Caption>

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