Owensboro Catholic wins regional tennis team titles

Owensboro Catholic swept the 3rd Region Tennis Tournament team championships on a sun-splashed Saturday.

Catholic’s girls beat Daviess County 3-0 for the girls regional team win, and Catholic’s boys prevailed over DC 3-0 for the boys team win at the Bill Thompson Outdoor Tennis Courts.

Both Catholic teams advance to the KHSAA State Championships in central Kentucky.

The team tournament will begin on Monday, June 3rd with first round and quarterfinal action across two sites. The boys team tournament will take place at the University of Kentucky on the opening day, while the girls team event will be held at Berea College.

All action on the second day (semifinals and finals) will take place at the University of Kentucky.

It was a fun and exciting Saturday for the Catholic teams and spectators watching. This was the first time in six seasons that the five match team format was used to advance to the State Tournament.

Noel Clayton coached Owensboro Catholic to its 21st regional championship in tennis with Saturday’s wins. Clayton also collected his 400th career win at Catholic recently.

“You could feel the excitement, the kids get to root for their teammates,” Clayton said. “A couple of my most heartbreaking losses in my career were in this format. McCracken County twice, one of those years they ended up being the state runner-up.”

Catholic was the girls team favorite, and they got wins from Ella Cason and the doubles team of Maddie Meyer and Elizabeth Hayden, to go with a forfeit from Daviess County.

“The girls, when we lined up I thought it would be hard to beat us,” Clayton said.

Joseph Merchant had a big singles win against DC. Cooper Danzer-Patrick Hauke won a doubles match, and John Wathen-Luke Pfeifer won another doubles match for Catholic. After a team won three matches, all other play was stopped.

Owensboro Catholic’s girls beat Grayson County 3-0 in the regional semifinals. Daviess County had a bye.

Catholic beat Grayson County’s boys 3-0 in the semifinals. Daviess County’s boys beat Owensboro 3-1 in the semifinals to advance to the championship round.