West Polk Tennis: Marshall, Oliver Set For Singles Showdown
Tue. March 19, 2013 at 3:40 a.m. | By Rick Brown
By RICK BROWN | THE LEDGER
LAKELAND | Lakeland High girls tennis player Meredith Marshall entered the West Polk County tennis championships determined.
This is her last county championships and she wanted to have a shot first for a West County title and then an overall county championship.
Well, she's given herself a chance at the first part.
Marshall advanced to the West title match in No. 1 singles after easily winning her two matches on Monday.
"I played pretty well," Marshall said. "I was consistent with my ground stroke. Keeping my feet moving helped."
To reach the second part of her goal, Marshall will have to knock off top-seed and defending Polk County Champion Taylor Oliver from George Jenkins.
Oliver did not give up a game in two matches as she advanced to the finals.
"This was great," said the sophomore, who played at All Saints last year. "There were a lot of girls that I grew up playing with but had not played because I was on the (East) side. It was different but I'm feeling confident."
Teamwise, Lakeland and Jenkins are 1-2 and will face off in four of the five single finals today. Lakeland has 19 points and has a girl in all five single matches, Jenkins has 16 points, while Bartow is third with 14.
On the boys side, No. 1 singles top-seed Gavin White advanced to the finals where he will face Lakeland Christian's Sam Moseley. In fact, the top two seeds advanced in all of the singles matches with the exception of the wacky No. 3 singles division.
Tenoroc's Matthew Moore upset top-seed Tim Tallo (LCS) in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Then, Moore fell to Lakeland's Jason Huntington in the semifinals.
Thus, the finals will feature Huntington and Hunter Branstner (GJ).
"I played really good today," Huntington said. "I was hoping to make it to the finals."
Overall, Jenkins leads the team race with 12 points. Lakeland is second with seven points, while Lakeland Christian is third with seven points.
