Catholic's Cason wins another 3rd Region tennis championship

Ella Cason won her fourth straight regional championship to lead a good day for Owensboro Catholic in the 3rd Region Tennis Tournament.

Cason beat Catholic teammate Madison Clark 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match on a windy Wednesday at the “Bill” Thompson Outdoor Tennis Courts.

Clark, a freshman, had powered her way through the singles bracket to earn the berth in the finals.

Regional finalist and semifinalist advance to the will all advance to the KHSAA State Individual and Doubles Championships on May 28-30.

“I’m excited,” Cason said of her regional championship win. “Madison has been playing very well this week. She had her opportunity this week and she crushed it.”

Catholic had the winner and runner-up in the girls doubles. Seniors Julia Marshall and Isabelle Reisz beat teammates Elizabeth Hayden and Maddie Meyer 6-1, 6-4. It was the second straight regional crown for Marshall-Reisz.

“We played pretty good together,” Marshall said. “We got better as the tournament progressed. Coming back as previous region champs there was some pressure, I think we played well.”

“We started off really strong, we pulled through in two sets,” Reisz said.

The Catholic boys double team of Cooper Danzer-Houston Danzer was going for a third straight regional title, but Muhlenberg County’s team of Paxton Evitts and Heath Embry battled through for a 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 1-0 (10-7) victory in a sensational match.

“It was a little rough starting out, but once we got in the groove of things we were locked in and ready to go,” Evitts said.

“I felt like we played good the whole match, we managed to stage a comeback in the second set and the third set tiebreaker.

Edmonson County’s Brayden Johnson beat Meade County’s Peyton Johnston 6-1, 6-3 to win the boys singles regional title.

“I thought I did a good job of executing my play defensively and set up my shots,” said Johnson, who is a sophomore.

Daviess County’s Landon McDuffee and Owensboro’s John Clay Ford were semifinalists in boys singles.

The schedule for the state tournament is as follows.

Boys competition Tuesday May 28 will be at the UK Boone/Downing Tennis Complex. Girls singles competition will be Tuesday at Berea College. Girls doubles competition will be Tuesday at Eastern Kentucky University.

Boys and girls tennis competition will move to the UK Boone/Downing Tennis Complex on Wednesday May 29 with semifinals and championship rounds Thursday May 30.