THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9607310157
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 54 lines
AS IT TURNED OUT, the only thing standing between Melissa Holland becoming a six-time champion at last week's Allied Colloids tennis tournament was the rule limiting players to five events.
Holland, a Windsor native currently ranked fifth in the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Association rankings, had to withdraw from the girls 12s division to meet the tournament's five-event limit. Otherwise, it was a perfect week for Holland, who won two singles and three doubles titles and reigned as the most decorated player at the annual tournament at the Howard Mast Tennis Complex.
In singles play, Holland defeated Courtney King, 6-3, 6-4, to take the girls 14s title and beat Carla King, 7-5, 6-3, to take the girls 16s. As a doubles player, she teamed with Chelesa Green to win the girls 14s, then joined Carla King to take the girls 16s. And Holland also paired with Chris Jenkins to win the 14s mixed doubles title.
The Allied Colloids tournament is one of the few junior tournaments that give junior boys and girls the opportunity to play together.
In other singles championship matches:
Michelle Grover, coming in after a couple of weeks of national tournament play, emphatically ended the title run of Lisa Allmond with a 6-0, 6-0 victory. Allmond, a rising junior at Lakeland, had won three straight tournaments coming in. Grover, formerly at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy last year, will enroll at Norfolk Academy this fall and will be the favorite to win the TCIS No. 1 girls singles title.
Michelle's brother, Bart, came in second in the boys 10s. Second-seeded Kevin Rountree upended the top-seeded Grover, 8-5, in the final.
Top-seeded Carrington Pinner, who will move with his family from Suffolk to Atlanta soon, made his final local tournament memorable by defeating No. 2 Chris Jenkins, 6-4, 7-5, in the boys 14s.
Davy Slack, who dropped just four games in his two tournament matches, took the boys 18s title with a 6-0, 6-2 decision over Brent Hobbs. Slack beat Arthur Bradshaw by the same scores in the semifinals.
Joseph Cross regained form after a shaky first set to defeat Chris Upton, 7-6, 6-2, in the boys 16s final. Cross trailed, 5-3, in the first set.
Hollis Gwaltney's consistency paid off in an 8-5 victory over Ashley Warren in the girls 10s.
Top-seeded Pittman Goodman outdueled No. 2 Lex Ferguson in three sets in the boys 12s. Ferguson retired trailing 4-2 in the third. ILLUSTRATION: Kristin Warren, who teamed up with Courtney King,
slams a return in the Allied Colloids finals.
Staff photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
Melissa Holland, left, and Chelesa Green check a racket during
finals of the 14-year-old doubles during the Allied Colloids tennis
tournament Friday. by CNB