North, South split win

By By Tony Krausz/assistant sports editor
July 17, 2004
JACKSON Brook Bounds' first sojourn into singles tennis play since the 2002 State Games of Mississippi was cut short by rain.
The graduated West Lauderdale tennis player was matched up against Shannon's Jennifer Mallette in the No. 4 girls singles match at the North/South All-Star tennis tournament at the Bridges Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
Bounds, who was playing on the South squad, was trailing Mallette 5-1 when rain canceled out the tourney around 3:30 p.m.
The doubles matches and one boys singles match was complete before the rain made the courts unplayable, resulting in a split win for the All-Star teams.
The South boys won 4-0, sweeping the doubles play and Morton's James Harris defeated Kosciusko's Sam Shields 6-0, 6-0 in singles action. The North girls won 3-0, sweeping the doubles matches.
Neshoba Central's Tyler Hardy was supposed to be part of the All-Star tournament, but he injured his arm on Thursday.
Hardy, who played for coach Susan Fox-Smith's team that went to the state tournament in each of the last three years, sustained his injury practicing his serve for the tournament.
Along with a new experience playing a singles match, Bounds who won the Class 3A State title in mix doubles along with Matthew Schanrock this year found out what it was like to have a partner of the same gender on the courts.
Bounds teamed with Poplarville's Natalie LaHaye in girls No. 2 doubles. The duo competed against the North's Mallett and Kirby Smith of Shannon. Smith and Mallett defeated Bounds and LaHaye 8-2.
The North's Casey Vinson of Tupelo and Sarah Spraberry of Southaven won the No. 1 doubles 8-0 against the South's Elizabeth Wolfe of and Morgan Pennington of Pascagoula. In No. 3 doubles, Cleveland's Price Walt and Tishomingo County's Amber Carmack defeated Brandon's Samantha Porter and Petal's Emily Lott 8-4 to complete the North girls sweep.
In boys doubles, James and John Harris of Morton downed Amory's Brian Palmeer and Greenville St. Joe's Charles Cascio 8-3 for a South win, and the South's Chris Purdum of Laurel and Andrew Brewer of Florence won their match 8-3 over the North's Kyle Davis of New Albany and Lee King.
In boys No. 3 doubles, the South's Doug Olson of Stone County and Andrew Busby defeated the North's Shields and Evan Askord.
The rain-shortened All-Star tournament didn't just represent the final high school tournament for the players, it was also Fox-Smith's last tourney as a prep coach.
Fox-Smith will teach psychology at East Central Community College next year, and she said she was happy to be part of the All-Star matches in her final year as the Neshoba Central coach.