THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250579
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
First Colonial's Anne Crenshaw insisted she wasn't looking forward to it. Just thinking about it made it nervous. Said it was just something that had to be done.
And this was just a tennis match. Wonder how Crenshaw reacts to getting a tooth pulled.
Nevertheless, Crenshaw was able to put her angst aside long enough to team with Mily Kannarkat and whip good friends and teammates Katy Walters and Laura Bridges, 6-0, 6-2, to win their second straight Eastern Region doubles championship Tuesday at Owl Creek Municipal Tennis Center.
Earlier Tuesday, defending state champion Kannarkat repeated as regional singles champion with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over perennial runner-up Leslie Beach of Tallwood.
Tuesday's results gave the Patriots a sweep of the regional awards (team, singles and doubles) for the second year in a row.
``Our team is so strong,'' Crenshaw said. ``This says a lot for FC.''
The doubles final was a rematch of last week's Beach District final, a match in which Bridges and Walters, the Patriots' No. 2 team, upset the No. 1 Kannarkat-Crenshaw duo in straight sets. Still, Crenshaw said friendship overrode thoughts of revenge as she geared up for Tuesday's match.
``If it had been any other team, I would have been fine,'' Crenshaw said of her prematch nerves. ``But I really don't like playing against my own teammates.''
Tuesday at least, Bridges and Walters couldn't have cared much for it either. They never got anything going as Crenshaw played solidly and Kannarkat seemed to be everywhere at net, picking off balls intended for her partner and knifing off clean winners.
The outcome of the singles final, another Beach District final rematch, continued a depressing trend for Beach, a terrific player whose sole misfortune is having come up during the Kannarkat era. The past two seasons, Beach is 0-6 against Kannarkat, 33-1 against everyone else.
Meanwhile, Kannarkat just keeps rolling along. She improved to 17-0 this season (43-0 in her high school career), has yet to drop a set and surrendered only two games in three regional tournament matches.
Sometimes a lopsided final score isn't indicative of the competitiveness of a match, but that wasn't the case Tuesday. The hard-hitting Beach needs to be near the top of her game against Kannarkat but made way too many unforced errors in the regional final to make much more of a match of it against the ultra-consistent Patriot.
Even so, Kannarkat never took anything for granted.
``A lot of pressure is off now,'' Kannarkat said. ``Some people expect me to win every time, but on any given day she can beat me. I know I have to play well.''
All finalists will advance to the Group AAA state tournament Nov. 10-11 at Prince George High and will open against Northwest Region opponents. by CNB