A dominant week for the Owensboro Catholic girls’ team at the 3rd Region tennis tournament fittingly ended with a pair of championship wins, and they easily finished in first place as a team.
In the boys competition, a three-way tie between Meade County, Daviess County and Owensboro ended with them taking first through third, respectively, based on win percentage.
The first individual title for the Lady Aces came from No. 1 seed Sarah Kate Young, who cruised past Meade County’s Colby Dupin (No. 3).
Catholic was already guaranteed a trophy in doubles play, as both finalists were a Lady Aces’ duo. Sarah Englert/Ashley Fulkerson (No. 1) beat teammates Alyssa Gatten/Olivia Hayden (No. 2) for the championship.
In the boy’s competition, Daviess County’s George Hulse (No. 3) outlasted Owensboro’s Dylan Mather (No. 1) for the singles title. The DC doubles team of No. 2 Chris Salamah/Dylan McDuffee finished runner-up after falling to the top seed from Meade County.
The singles match between Mather and Hulse was the show-stopper as the only truly close contest. Hulse won 10-7 in the third set tiebreaker to pull out the win.
The pair met once earlier in the season, but the outcome was reversed. This time, Hulse was glad he got the win.
“Today I felt like I won more shots,” he said. “Patience is definitely what I was going for. I was waiting for the right time to hit the ball and go for it.”
Hulse has been to the state tournament twice before as a doubles contender, but he said it’s even sweeter going as a singles player.
For Owensboro Catholic, neither victory was ever in doubt. Young, who only dropped five total sets in four matches, said she felt like she played consistently in Wednesday’s championship but also confidence throughout the tournament. She said the whole team put in plenty of effort to claim the title.
“I think our team was working up to [a win] since we’ve won region in the past,” she said. “We put in a lot of hard work. It was a long season trying to get to this point.”
Though the doubles final left teammates pitted against each other, Fulkerson said all of the girls go hard in practice and push each other to do their best.
“We know these girls, so we know what they do and they know that for us, too,” she said. “Coming into it, we knew it was going to be a good one. At the end of the day, yes they are our opponents, but we’re still teammates.”
Englert said they are excited to all make it to the finals.
“When you get into region, it’s such a different atmosphere that anything can happen,” she said. “But we came into the tournament confident and we’ve been working hard this year.”
Gatten and Hayden had never played together before this year. Hayden said Gatton was a great partner, and she was surprised and excited to be going to state as a freshman.
All winners and runners-up, as well as the other two semifinalists, will advance to the state championships.
Apollo’s girls doubles team of Caitlyn Blandford/Madalyn Hyland will advance after losing in the semifinals. Similarly, the Owensboro boys’ doubles teams of Paul Iracane/Will Clark and AJ Iracane/Grayson McFarland will play at state after falling in the semifinals.
