WVOW Sports
LOGAN The Cardinal Conference has become one of the toughest conferences in high school tennis over the past several years, boasting some of the best teams in the state in class AA/A.
The seven-team field comprising of Logan, Chapmanville, Winfield, Nitro, Herbert Hoover, Scott, and Sissonville met at Logan High School to compete for the conference championship, and as expected, the boys’ and girls’ titles came down to the very last match on both sides.
The Chapmanville Lady Tigers were able to squeak out a one-match win over the Logan Lady Wildcats, as Chapmanville claimed four of the seven titles and 17 match wins overall, while Logan took home the other three-position titles and finished with 16 overall match wins. The Scott Lady Skyhawks were able to edge out Nitro 6-5 for third place on the girls’ side.
In the boys’ bracket, the Winfield Generals and Logan Wildcats fought to the late stages as well and finished in a dead heat at 17 match wins total for both clubs, but Winfield claimed the overall championship by winning four of the seven titles, with Logan taking the other three titles. Chapmanville came in third place on the boys’ side with eight total match wins.
In No. 1 girls’ doubles, the team of Hannah Thompson and Riley Moore from Logan knocked off Chapmanville’s duo of Courtney Curnutte and Jill Blevins 8-3 in the championship match.
In the No. 2 girls' doubles final, Logan’s Brooke Ooten and Ashton McDonald raced their way to an 8-1 win over Chapmanville’s Emma Bryant and Carmen Mahon.
No. 3 doubles came down to Chapmanville’s Emily Carter and Emily Hughes against Mason Lockman and Kailyn Moore of Nitro, with Chapmanville taking their first title of the day with an 8-4 victory.
In No. 1 girls’ singles, the championship came down to Logan’s Thompson and Scott’s Jenna Butcher, who met in the state championship a year ago, with Butcher claiming the state title over Thompson. Logan was able to turn the tables this time around, as Thompson defeated Butcher 8-2.
The No. 2 girls singles spot was decided by Moore of Logan and Blevins of Chapmanville, with Blevins winning a grueling 8-5 affair.
The No. 3 position was equally as tough, as Ooten of Logan and Bryant from Chapmanville battled down to the wire with Bryant edging out Ooten 8-6 for the championship.
In the final position of No. 4 singles, Logan and Chapmanville would lock up again, as McDonald from Logan and Mahon of Chapmanville battled for the third time this season, with Mahon taking the title 8-2 for the Lady Tigers.
Chapmanville Head Coach Chris Kidd said he was happy for his girls, and that it is always tough when they match up with Logan.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what our girls accomplished,” Kidd said. “This is a really tough conference. You have three all-state players, two state champions, three state runner-up players, and five players who made the state semifinals last year all in the conference, and that’s just on the girls’ side. So, it’s always going to be difficult to win a title like this.
“Facing Logan in five of the seven finals is always an enormous challenge. Their girls are so talented and mentally and physically tough and gave our girls their only two losses this year when we played in the regular season.” Kidd said. “So, we know that being ready isn’t enough, we have to really go to another level and today we were able to do that, and hopefully, we’ll be able to at regionals next week too.”
“I’m just so happy for my girls, and I’m happy for Logan’s girls. They play against each other a lot even in the offseason,” Kidd said. “All of them have pushed each other to become better players, and that’s shown all season and today for both of us.”
In the boys’ tournament, No. 1 doubles would be decided by Jackson Akers and Riley Reed of Logan, and William Sinclair and Will Rice of Winfield, with Akers and Reed gutting out an 8-6 win for the Wildcats.
No. 2 doubles would also be decided by Logan and Winfield, as the team of Ethan Coleman and Mitchell Proper for the Generals defeated Sam Adkins and Tristan Burgess of Logan 8-1 to take the title.
The No. 3 doubles spot would be the only championship match-up not featuring Logan against Winfield, as Chapmanville’s Stephen Stowers and Seth Freeman came from 2-6 down in the semifinals to defeat the Generals 8-6 to move into the finals where they met Logan’s Will Stanley and Scotty Browning. The team of Stanley and Browning were able to prevail 8-4 to take home another doubles title for Logan.
In singles, the No. 1 spot would come down to Akers of Logan and Sinclair from Winfield with Akers gaining the upper hand with an 8-2 win.
The No. 2 singles spot proved to be an incredible match between Reed of Logan and Winfield’s Rice, with Rice narrowly outlasting Reed 8-6 for the championship.
In No. 3 singles, Coleman of Winfield faced off against Logan’s Adkins with Coleman coming out on top 8-3 in the finals.
The final match in No. 4 singles pitted Proper of Winfield taking on Stanley of Logan. Proper was able to take the championship 8-3 for Winfield to help claim the overall title as well.