RMS tennis teams split two with Florence

By Staff
Submitted to the FCT
The Russellville Middle School tennis teams played the Florence Falcons on Monday and came away with one win and one loss. The RMS girls cruised to an easy 10-0 win at the Russellville Tennis Center while the RMS boys fell 3-5 to Florence.
Coach Jill Phillips was proud of her teams and the effort they put forth against the Falcons. "Both the girls and the boys have a lot to be proud of today. On our girls' team we got to play six girls that don't get to play much. From the number two position through the number seven spot we had girls playing for the first time this year. For our girls to go undefeated against a much bigger school like Florence with untested players shows how strong our girls' team is from top to bottom."
For the girls, McKenzie Messer, playing in the number one spot, led the charge for the Golden Tigers as she won her singles match 6-1. Mary Kate Beall (6-0), Ashley Askew (6-1), Anna Grace Sutton ((6-5), Tara McKelvey (6-1), Molly Gaston (6-1) and Zoe Welch (6-1) continued the winning ways for Russellville as they completely dominated Florence.
In doubles, Russellville won easily as Messer – Beall (6-0), Askew – Sutton (6-4), and McKelvey – Gaston (6-0) handled their Florence counterparts.
According to Coach Phillips, the situation was a little different for the boys' team. "Our boys had a tough situation to deal with today, and they didn't back down at all. We were short-handed because we only had five players. We were also missing our number one player, Brandon King, who was playing with the junior varsity. That meant that each player was playing up a position and was playing against a stronger player than normal. Considering those things, our boys did really well today even though we did not come out on top."
In singles, Alex Richey, playing in the number one spot, lost his match (3-6) to Florence. That set the tone for the day for RMS as Cody Cameron (3-6), Jarred McCalpin (2-6), and John Fike (4-6) lost and Jordan Baker (6-3) won. RMS did better in doubles as Richey – Cameron (6-2) and Baker – Zoe Welch (6-1) won and McCalpin – Fike (2-6) lost.
The RMS boys and girls tennis teams play their home matches at the Russellville Tennis Center behind the Russellville Football Stadium. RMS plays Muscle Shoals at home on Monday March 26th at 4:00 p.m. The RMS tennis schedule can be viewed by going to www.rms.rcs.k12.al.us and clicking on Sports and then clicking on Tennis. Photos of this match can be viewed at www.benrichey.com.