Princess Anne, Great Bridge, Tabb tennis stars rally for first VHSL singles championships
No challenge was too great for Princess Anne junior Harrison Lee, Great Bridge freshman Kayla Kennedy and Tabb sophomore Christina Baxter, who won their first VHSL singles championships in memorable fashion.
Lee competed for about three hours and was the last of the six champions crowned Saturday at Huntington Park. Fighting cramps from early in third set, he outlasted Riverbend’s Jack Wexler 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in Class 5.
Lee said he began to feel cramps after breaking Wexler’s serve for a 2-0 lead in the third set.
“You’ve got to relax and let it pass,” he said. “I’ve dealt with that a million times. If you worry and think about it a lot, it gets worse. I had to take deep breaths and say my mantra, ‘Only the ball.’”
Leading 3-2, Lee got a medical timeout and “they massaged my legs for three minutes.”
Dealing with cramps prompted Lee to hit harder and go for more winners.
“When I was in the second set and feeling fine, I wasn’t being aggressive,” he said. “I probably hit more winners when I was cramping than in the first two sets combined.”
Lee finished with a flourish, winning the last eight points after Wexler held serve for 5-all. A forehand winner punctuated a duel that took about three hours.
Kennedy, quiet and wise beyond her 14 years, staged a memorable rally in a Class 4 girls final that ended in unforeseen, if not unprecedented, fashion at Huntington Park. Playing as the underdog, she trailed 6-1, 4-1 to fellow freshman Kirsten Woods of Blacksburg, the daughter of Virginia Tech women’s tennis coach Terry Ann Zawacki-Holdren. But as Kennedy got more balls back in play and hung in there, Woods’ blazing shots began to miss. The Wildcats’ top player won four consecutive games to take a 5-4 lead.
Stunningly, Kennedy never needed to complete her comeback. Woods, suffering an anxiety attack, put away her racket and stopped play. A couple of minutes later, she left the court after shaking hands with Kennedy.
Kennedy said she thought Woods was playing through tears after the lead was cut to 4-3.
“I’m glad that I won, but I would’ve liked to have played it out,” she said.
Kennedy’s father, Trevor, said her daughter had lost to Woods 6-2, 6-0 at a U.S. Tennis Association tournament in Blacksburg in their previous meeting.
Kennedy, who has played since age 6, has learned from Maury senior Mya Byrd, whose bid for a third Class 5 title ended with a knee injury in Friday’s semifinals.
“Mya’s passing that torch down to her — that’s what her dad told me,” Trevor said.
Baxter’s family is moving to Fort Worth, Texas, so Saturday’s match was her last for Tabb. She went out in style, overcoming Abingdon’s Lauren Wimmer 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 at Virginia Tech for the Class 3 crown.
In two years as a Tiger, Baxter won three of a possible four individual VHSL titles. She won the doubles championship with Emily Beckner last season and with Valentina Crespo-Berker on Friday. The only time she came up short, she lost a three-setter to Beckner — now a starter for nationally ranked Division III team Mary Washington — in the 2021 Region A singles final.
