Kentucky High School State Tennis Tournament Storylines

Troy Howellby:Troy Howell•05/31/21

After being cancelled last year, the state tennis tournament is back!  Here are 10 storylines.

1.  As usual, Louisville St. Xavier is the heavy favorite on the boys’ side.  The Tigers won 10-straight team championships (2009-2018) until Trinity snapped their streak in 2019.  There was no state tournament last year.  St. X has the top seed in singles sophomore Eli Stephenson.  They also have the top seeded doubles pair in Ty Bush and Patrick Johnson.

2. Other contenders include North Oldham, South Oldham, and Henry Clay.  Other teams that could make some noise include Covington Catholic, Central Hardin, Louisville Trinity, Ashland, Corbin, and Elizabethtown.

3. No. 9 seed Brady Hussey (freshman, Covington Catholic) is the younger brother of Austin Hussey.  Hussey won the 2013 state singles championship and went on to play at UK.  Should the seeds hold up, his round of 16 match-up with #3 seed Jacks Lancaster of Greenwood could be epic.  Lancaster has won 4-straight region singles titles.  His father, Kerry Lancaster, used to coach at St. Xavier, where he coached the Tigers to several state titles.

4. Ethan Sellars and Cameron Brown (Ashland) won the 16th region doubles title.  Sellars, a junior, was one of the top players on the Tomcats’ basketball team that made the state semifinals.  He is best known for scoring 37 points against North Laurel.

5. Equan Branham and Joseph Honeycutt (Knott County Central) won the 14th region doubles championship as 8th graders.

6. The doubles team of Luke Colson and Samuel Gurevich (North Oldham) qualified for the state tournament as 7th graders.

7. Grant Bingham, a UK offensive lineman commit, qualified for the state tournament in doubles with Brayden Pickle (Johnson Central).

I like that serve!

8. On the girls’ side, the 2019 champion Carrie Beckman of Sacred Heart, is the top seed.  The 2019 runner-up, Olivia Gallagher of Scott County, won the region tournament this season but had to withdraw from the state tournament, according to the draw.  Sacred Heart is the team favorite.   They also have the top two seeds in singles (Beckman and Ellie Eades) and the top seed in doubles in Ellie Hammond and Gracie Koch.

9. On a personal note I want to congratulate Montgomery County seniors Clark Brann and Joe South for making the state tournament.  They are fine young men that represent the school with class.  Montgomery County is coached by my brother and fellow KSR contributor Clark Howell.  Howell played in the state tournament four straight years and has coached in the tournament multiple times.  His claim to fame is winning two games against a very young Eric Quigley in a junior tournament and being questioned by family members about why he couldn’t beat such a young opponent.  Quigley went on to be a 4-time state singles champion at South Oldham, an NCAA singles finalist at UK, and a professional tennis player.

WMST’s Danny Manley interviewed Clark, Joe, and Clark on Friday.  It starts about the 43:00 minute mark of the 5/28/21 Mornings on Main Show.

10. Congratulations to all the student athletes that qualified!

Information:

The tournament runs from Tuesday June 1 – Thursday June 3. Most of the matches will be played at Top Seed Tennis Club, which is on the border of Lexington and Nicholasville.  You must acquire a ticket online to attend.  Tickets for Tuesday are free.

Here are the schedules:

2021 Tennis Championships- Boys Day One Order of Play/Schedule | Kentucky High School Athletic Association (khsaa.org)

2021 Tennis Championships- Girls Day One Order of Play/Schedule | Kentucky High School Athletic Association (khsaa.org)

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