by TennisRecruiting.net, 20 March 2013
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Sixteen of the nation's top girls high school tennis teams traveled to Louisville, Kentucky on March 15-16th to compete in the prestigious DecoTurf High School Tennis Team Championships. The seventh annual national invitational tournament featured six defending state champions and five state finalists. The tournament hosted teams from Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.
On Saturday evening as one of the most competitive championships matches in tournament history drew to a close the
Baylor Red Raiders of Chattanooga, Tennessee made history. With the tournament championship hanging the in balance two-time defending champion Baylor trailed
Jenks (Jenks, OK) 3-4. The Red Raiders needed victories from
McCall Morgan at No. 4 singles and
Samantha Caswell at No. 1 singles to win the tournament championship for a third straight year. A third set victory by Morgan put the match on the racket of Caswell who had a one set lead.
With temperatures falling and darkness looming tournament participants from numerous teams gathered around the final court of play to watch two-time tournament MVP Samantha Caswell pulled out a 6-3, 6-4 straight set win to clinch the match and give Baylor a record third straight title. The junior four-star recruit pushed her tournament winning streak to 19 straight wins by outscoring her 2013 opponents 50-19 in singles to claim MVP honors. Teammates Harper Caswell also claimed all-tournament team honors in singles and partnered with McCall Morgan to claim all-tournament team honors in doubles.
Tournament finalist Jenks just fell short of their championship hopes despite some outstanding play throughout the tournament. The Trojans were led by Oklahoma's top ranked sophomore McKinleigh Lair who finished tournament play undefeated at No. 2 singles and fellow sophomore Jenny Bond who was unbeaten at No. 5 singles. Jenks senior Mariah Burke finished 1-3 in tournament play but all three loses came at the hands of all-tournament team members.
