THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605110130
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY JAMI FRANKENBERRY, SUN SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
DON'T BE SURPRISED if Lakeland's Kelly Lewis is at the Lake Meade Landing tennis courts in Suffolk long before 8:30 a.m. Monday when the Bay Rivers District boys and girls tennis tournaments start.
The senior, who defaulted in last year's tournament after being late, vows that the same thing will not happen again.
``I'm going to be there. I'll sleep there,'' said Lewis, the Cavaliers' No. 1 player. ``I was a minute late. I was so mad.''
Getting there will be the easy part for Lewis, who lost in the tournament finals to Tabb's Sonya Miyer as a sophomore. She'll have to advance through a field that includes Poquoson's Andrea Hunter and Southampton's Jennifer Blankenship, who each beat Lewis earlier this season.
``I was in a slump early on,'' said Lewis, whose team already qualified for the Region I tournament in two weeks with a 6-3 win over York on Wednesday. ``I was worried about everything. Now, I'm just playing and having fun.''
The singles and doubles finalists of the Bay Rivers tournament join the top two girls teams - Poquoson and Lakeland - at the Region I tournament. The boys district tournament follows the same format. York and Poquoson will be the Bay Rivers representatives in the regional.
For the district tournament, players must switch from playing for the team to playing for themselves. Each team's No. 1 player is seeded according to their record, while the rest of the players' names are pulled from a hat to determine the draw.
``It's going to be a lot tougher this year,'' said Angela Jones, Lakeland's No. 2 player. ``The two girls from Poquoson (Hunter and Laura Schempf) are really good and you can run into your own teammates.''
Jones speaks from experience. She made the finals last year, but lost to teammate Mary Donnan Debranski. As a sophomore, she fell to another teammate, Lewis, in the semifinals.
``I'll end up playing someone from my own team. It always happens,'' Jones said. ``I'll just have to play a lot better.''
In other postseason tournaments:
Bay Rivers soccer begins Wednesday at York. Three teams - York, Poquoson and Bruton - have clinched spots in the four-team tournament. Monday's Franklin-Poquoson game will decide the fourth seed. If the Broncos win, they're in. If not, Nansemond River will make its first-ever postseason appearance in soccer.
The Warriors beat Franklin on Friday 3-0 in what Nansemond River coach Kevin Beale called his team's best performance of the season.
``We played 90 minutes of all-out soccer,'' said Beale, whose team got two goals from Justin Pretlow and one from Ryan Parrish. ``I definitely think we played at our peak.''
Whichever team earns the fourth seed will have to play at their peak in the semifinals in order to upset powerful York, which is unbeaten in district play. Poquoson faces Bruton in the other semifinal Wednesday. Times were not determined as of Thursday.
The Virginia Commonwealth Conference softball tournament gets underway Tuesday at 4 p.m. with the top four seeds hosting. Isle of Wight, ranked No. 1 in the Virginia Independent Schools slow-pitch poll last week, will host No. 4 Southampton Academy on Monday to determine the tournament's top seed. The semifinals are Friday at Brunswick Academy, followed by the final on Saturday.
The VCC baseball tournament also starts Tuesday at 4 p.m. with the top four seeds hosting. Isle of Wight and Southampton Academy, seventh and eighth in the standings before Thursday's games, will likely travel to meet either Brunswick or Tidewater Academy, the conference's top two. The semifinals are Friday at Brunswick, followed by the final on Saturday. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Lakeland's No. 1 player, Kelly Lewis, plans to be on time Monday
when the Bay Rivers District tennis tournament starts.
by CNB