Saturday, April 27, 1996

Cooper tennis "trifecta" impressive at Region

By TED DUNNAM
Assistant Sports Editor

LUBBOCK - Choirboys Ilie Nastase and John McEnroe should have taken note of Cooper's Matt Parkhill Friday in the Region I-5A tennis tournament.

Darryl Dawkins would have called this a fuse-blowin', tantrum-throwin' temper's-showin' kind of a tournament for Parkhill.

The Cougar senior survived two three-set matches and his off-the-chart behavior to advance to the boys singles championship. A hard-earned trip to the finals it was as Parkhill entered the tournament unseeded.

His march to the championship, however, was just one third of a highly impressive trifecta turned in by the Cougars at the Lubbock Municipal Tennis Center.

The Cougar doubles teams of Kathryn Scott and Heather Gibson (No. 2 seeds) and Ryan Hughes and Chuck Haddox (No. 1 seeds) barely broke a sweat in advancing to the championship round as they each won three matches in convincing straight-set fashion.

Parkhill was the story on this day, however. He knocked off the No. 4 seed, Bryan Holcomb, of Wichita Falls Rider in three sets in the first round.

In his second match, Cooper assistant tennis coach Jimmy Cole assessed Parkhill a penalty point for ball abuse. Parkhill, though, cleaned up his act momentarily and managed to pull out a 7-6, 6-4 quarterfinal win.

Then in the semis, Parkhill's temper got the best of him again. This time, a tournament official penalized him a game that gave L.D. Bell's Justin Work a 4-2 lead in the decisive third set.

Parkhill held serve in the next game, but so did Work as the Bell senior went up 5-3. Parkhill then played the next four games, if not in gentlemanly fashion, then certainly in a clutch manner. He reeled off the final four games to end the match and a turbulent day.

"When Jimmy gave me the point penalty, I deserved it," Parkhill said. "I always deserve them. It didn't surprise me that he gave me one, but it made me mad.

"In the last match, I felt the umpire had it in for me. When I got that game penalty, it really got me mad, but it got me pumped up, also.

"I thought I could get to the finals here, but I forgot about Justin being in this region. He's a good player."

Now Parkhill will meet District 4-5A rival Charlie Roberson of San Angelo Central in the boys final.

If Parkhill is cited for any type of misconduct today, he'll be automatically defaulted because his two penalties carry over to today's match.

"I think I'm going to go out there with a piece of tape over my mouth," Parkhill said. "Me and Charlie are good friends. I don't think anything will happen out there."

While Parkhill provided the theatrics for the day, Scott and Gibson had a stroll through the park. In three matches, they cruised by scores of 6-3, 6-2; 6-0, 6-2; and 6-1, 6-2.

"We were expecting to play (Wichita Falls) Rider in the semis, but when they got beat that really opened the door for us," Scott said. "We had expected to have a little pressure on us, but once we got warmed up in the first set of the first match, we were in control.

'I thought we got better with each match today. We just really didn't have any problems."
Gibson agreed.

'This was a lot easier than I expected," the University of Houston signee said. "You couldn't ask for better conditions to play in - this was perfect.

"We were a little shaky at first, but then we played solid doubles after that. Kathryn and me pretty much know what the other one's going to do without even communicating with each other."

However, they'll need their best tennis today to beat top seeds Kaysie Smashey and Miranda Carvalho of El Paso Franklin.

'It's going to be a fun match," Scott said. "We have to make the simple shots - first serves and returns. We have to give them a lot of change-up stuff because they love power tennis."

"We can't get into a power match with them," Gibson said. "We have to keep the ball in play and go for finesse. They're a good team, but I'm confident we can beat them."
Hughes and Haddox had a relatively easy time, capping their three-match run with a 6-2, 6-0 win in the semifinals.

'We never gave them a chance (Rider team)," Haddox said of the semifinal match. "It seemed like Ryan and I couldn't miss in that match.

"We had good first serves and flawless first volleys. If we play that way tomorrow, we should win."

Hughes saw it the same way.

'Today was a real positive day," the Class 5A defending state singles champion said. "We were incredibly focused all day. I was really happy with the way things went.

"Chuck's not showing any nerves. In fact, he's keeping me settled down. If we play tomorrow like we did today, we should do pretty well."

The only disappointment the Cougars could count on this day was a second-round loss by the doubles team of Andi Wildner and Lacy Johnson.

Abilene High's Meiling Parks lost in the semifinals to El Paso Hanks' Brenna Shackleford, 7-6, 6-2, but has an outside chance of getting to state in a playback.

"I just felt real tight. I wasn't hitting out on my shots," said a teary-eyed Parks. "I just couldn't start the point today. I don't know why."

Parks was on target in her first two matches, cruising to victory. However, her game deserted her in the semis.

"She hit loopy groundstrokes that gave me trouble. When I lost the tiebreaker, I got a little down. I was serving at 6-5 for the set and at 6-5 in the tiebreaker.

"But I improved from last year. I didn't even get out of district last year."

"Meiling had some chances to win the first set and just didn't capitalize," AHS head coach Kim Gidley said. "Being as young (sophomore) as she is, she's never been in this position before.
"She'll learn from it and it will help her. It's disappointing right now, but this will do nothing but help her." Cooper coach Leanne Scott was almost completely satisfied with Friday's turn of events.
"I really couldn't have asked for more," she said. "Maybe Andi and Lacy could have won their second match, but I'm not complaining.

"With us in three finals, that's the most we could expect. Our players really responded well today."
All finals and third-place matches are set for 8:30 a.m. today with any playbacks to follow.