Both familiar faces and a newcomer will represent Union City in the District 14A Tennis Tournament championships.
The top-seeded Lady Tornado doubles team of Shelby Bondurant and Molly Kizer will look to repeat last year’s district title feat in a rematch with teammates Dani and Davey Frankum after both Union City duos won quarterfinal and semifinal matches Monday.
Freshman Emma Mobbs – the No. 4 seed – will carry the Purple and Gold flag in the singles competition today when she meets up with second seed Ginny Archie of Greenfield in the finals.
Mobbs, who played as the fifth singles seed during the regular season, knocked off tourney No. 1 Taylor Warren (6-2, 6-4) of Obion Central in the second of her two Monday wins.
The championships are slated to begin at 2:00 at the Union City Middle School courts.
Bondurant and Kizer, who were the 2023 Class 1A state runners-up, cruised into this year’s 14A championship round with impressive Day 1 victories. They surrendered just three games in three sets against two overmatched opponents.
The Frankum twins, the No. 2 seed, easily won their first-round match, then finally put away No. 3 Hannah Taylor and Hannah Strauser of Obion Central 6-4, 6-3.
All five Union City girls will advance to next Monday’s regional individuals at Bethel University, regardless of today’s championship match outcomes.
Bertie Jenkins and Byron Abbott each claimed play-in victories for the Tornadoes in Monday’s postseason opener before dropping quarterfinal matches.
Jenkins, who was the reigning singles champion on the girls’ side after stunning the field as a freshman last year, beat Celeste Perez of Huntingdon 8-3 before falling 8-4 to Archie.
Abbott got the best of Atari Thomas of Westview (8-6) for the Union City boys’ lone victory before losing to top-seed Olin Johnson of Obion Central 8-1.
Union City’s boys doubles teams of Grant Sinclair/Kobe Kirk and Bryce White/Lyndon Brown both suffered first-round losses. Foster Rodgers also came up short, beaten by Benjamin Braddock of Westview, 8-2.
