SPRINGFIELD, Mo. • It was a wild final few minutes to the 83rd Missouri state tennis tournament Saturday at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.
MICDS senior Charlie Curtis capped off his first state singles championship with an exciting three-set win over over Will Welte of Pembroke Hill on Court 14, but the real drama was happening on adjacent Court 15 as the Class 1 doubles finals between Joe Dulle and Jake Lee of Clayton and Chandler McCray and Josh Girson of Pembroke Hill was beginning a third set tie-breaker.
Pembroke Hill, which had two match points at 6-5 in the third set, had a 5-3 lead in the tie-breaker when Clayton won the next point. In frustration, Girson slammed the ball over the fence. It was the second code violation of the match for the Raiders which gave the tie-breaker, the match and the championship to the Greyhounds.
Fans for both teams stood in amazement with the announcement by chair umpire Lou Conley.
Pembroke Hill had been issued its first code violation when a third point was overruled by Conley.
"I was just in total shock," Clayton coach Susie Luten said to the unique finish in the final completed match of the tournament. "I have coached for 12 years and had a lot of successful doubles teams and I was not even aware of the rule. Their coach (Dale Eshelbrenner) came up to me afterwards and said he was embarrassed and congratulated my guys."
Dulle was shocked with the announcement of game, set and match.
"I was like, no way," said Dulle, a freshman. "I knew he hit it over the fence but I didn't know that it was going to end the match."
The match would have ended earlier if not for a couple of crucial poaches by Dulle on the two match and championship points.
"Joey Dulle carried us today," said Lee, a junior. "He deserves the most credit. I was a little shaky at times but he won all the key points. I would have liked to have won it on the court rather than by a code violation but a win is a win."
And a championship is a championship.
"All I can say is that the guys persevered and always came back," Clayton assistant coach Rick Chappuis said. "They played their best tennis at the state tournament."
The excitement at the end of the doubles match almost overshadowed an end to an amazing season for Curtis, who came back after losing the first set in the championship match.
Curtis not only finished his high school career as a state champion but as an undefeated state champion.
"I wanted this so badly," Curtis said. "Being undefeated was in the back of my mind but being an individual champion was on the front of my mind. I was on a team which won when I was a freshman and that was amazing. But this is also very special."
Curtis said that things turned around early in the second set.
"Will played an amazing first set and had only two unforced errors," Curtis said. "I didn't think that could continue. He made unforced errors on the first two points of the first game of the second set. When I won the second set I told myself that this was going to be the last set of high school tennis in my life and I have to make the most out of it."
State championship point came on a running cross-court winner.
"It is a somewhat risky play but I like doing it on the run," Curtis said.
The winner came after a long rally and was a typical Curtis point where he returned ball after ball until he got his chance for a put away.
"It is so nice to see Charlie have an end to the season like this," MICDS coach Patrick Huewe said. "He has always been a class act on the court and I know this is special for him."
