Blue Jays Win Tennis Crown
Cougars win second consecutive title
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
By Tammy Nunez
Staff writer
LAFAYETTE -- This year, there was no sympathy for the doubles team on the other side of the net in the Division I boys doubles finals. This season, Gerard Suhor and Jordan Ezell were on the same team.
In last year's finals, the two Jesuit players were on different doubles teams, and played against each other. On Tuesday at St. Thomas More, the duo won a state championship and put the finishing touches on the Blue Jays' second consecutive title. Jesuit won with 10 points.
"From an individual standpoint, I've lost in the finals the last two years," Ezell said. "You prepare all year for this . . . and it is a memorable moment."
Suhor said this year's match was much more rewarding.
"It was a lot better because it wasn't our team on the other side, it wasn't all quiet and awkward during the match," Suhor said. "It definitely feels better to get (Ezell) through the finals this time."
The victory gives Jesuit 10 of the past 11 crowns. Though St. Paul's and Airline each finished with six points, Airline was runner-up because Airline's Matthew Zachary won the singles title.
Mount Carmel was hoping to end its four-year title drought, and anxiously watched the doubles final of St. Scholastica's Maggie Bankston and Shelby Fritscher against St. Thomas More's Lauren Breaux and Shelby Dufrene. A Doves' victory would have kept the Cubs ahead of the Cougars by one point for the team victory. But Breaux and Dufrene won 6-0, 6-1, giving the Cougars their second consecutive title and leaving the Cubs in second. Both teams scored 10 points, but the doubles victory gave the trophy to St. Thomas More.
Cubs Coach Colleen Clarke said she was hoping her doubles team of Megan deBaroncelli and Gabrielle Roe didn't take too much out of the Doves in the semifinals. Bankston and Fritscher won that match to prevent the Cubs from claiming the team title.
"We would have liked to do it on our own," Clarke said. "Last year (the Cubs doubles team and St. Scholastica's team) had a great match, and it was another good match this year. The girls played well. St. Scholastica just played better."
St. Joseph's finished third with nine points, thanks in large part to singles player Lauren Mira. She made quick work of Caddo Magnet's Mary Meyers in the singles championship, winning 6-1,
6-0 for her third consecutive title.