Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Senior Brooklyn Kempton returns the ball during a match in Morenci. Duncan’s top seed is 6-5 and a combined 8-3 in doubles.
By Raymundo Frasquillo
DUNCAN – Duncan’s tennis girls close the regular season in Pima on Tuesday, April 16.
Coming out of the weekend, the Wildkats were third in the Division III – Section I standings and ranked No. 15 (6-5 seeding, 5.7171 rating, 6-5 section), behind top-ranked Thatcher (13-0, 18.5246, 11-0) and No. 10 Safford (11-3, 10.0572, 8-3), and ahead of No. 18 Benson (7-6, 4.0900, 6-5), No. 20 Willcox (5-8, 1.1963, 3-8), No. 23 Morenci (4-9, 0.0283, 2-9), and No. 29 Pima (4-9, minus 1.0462, 2-9). There are 48 teams in the division.
Duncan is 34-32 in singles and 15-18 in doubles, including a forfeit loss both in singles and doubles.
In singles, No. 2 junior Kaitlyn Lunt is 11-0, No. 3 sophomore Melissa Claridge 7-4, No. 1 senior Brooklyn Kempton 6-5, No. 5 sophomore Kinsley Rapier 5-6, No. 4 junior Lynnie Neilson 4-7, and No. 6 freshman Ella Jernigan 1-9.
The Kempton – Claridge duo is 7-3, Lunt – Neilson 6-4, Kempton – Lunt 1- 0, Claridge – Neilson 0-1, and Rapier – Jernigan 1-9.
In April, the Wildkats fell 6-3 to the Bulldogs in Safford on the 2nd, edged the Wildcats 5-4 in Morenci on the 9th, and defeated the Willcox Cowgirls 7-2 on the 11th.
Duncan – 7, Willcox – 2
Five singles and two doubles pairings ended in victories for Duncan.
The singles wins were by Lunt (6-1, 6-0 over senior Kayla Ellisor), Claridge (6-4 twice over freshman Jodi Denny), Neilson (6-1, 6-0 over sophomore Sydney Hansen), Rapier (7-5, 6-4 over freshman Kamrielle Wyatt), and Jernigan (6-1, 6-0 over sophomore Jada Reynolds).
Kempton – Claridge and Rapier – Jernigan prevailed 8-3 over senior Allison Melton – Denny and 8-1 over Wyatt – Reynolds, respectively, in doubles.
For Willcox, the singles win was with a 10-8 tie-breaker by Melton over Kempton following a 7-5 win and 4-6 loss. The Ellisor – Denny duo posted an 8-6 win over Lunt – Neilson.
Duncan – 5, Morenci – 4
Duncan prevailed in three singles and two doubles pairings.
The singles wins were by Kempton (10-2 overt junior Keanna Cortez), Lunt (10-2 over sophomore Izabel Uranzorig), and Claridge (10-4 over junior Corrie White).
For doubles, wins were by Kempton – Claridge (10-6 over Cortez – Gonzalez) and Lunt – Neilson (11-9 over Uranzorig – Mendez -Draper).
For Morenci, singles wins were by junior Monica Gonzalez (9-7 over Kempton), sophomore Taylor Begay (10-6 over Rapier), and Viviana Mendez-Draper (10-0 over Jernigan).
The doubles win was by juniors Corrie White – Madalyn Wright (10-1 over Rapier – Jernigan).
Safford – 6, Duncan – 3
The Wildkats won two fewer matches, a singles and a doubles, than during the first pairing with the Bulldogs.
Kempton (8-2 over junior Ella Peterson) and Lunt (8-2 over junior Alissa Carter) won singles matches as well as a doubles match, 8-4 over Peterson – junior Cambry Cluff.
For Safford, junior CeAirra Bowman (6-1, 7-5 over Claridge), Cluff (6-0, 6-1 over Neilson), senior Gianna Ciancimino (6-1, 6-2 over Rapier), and junior Sonja Estrada (6-0 twice over Jernigan) each won singles pairings. The doubles wins were by Peterson – Cluff (8-6 over Lunt – Neilson) and Estrada – junior Madison Peterson (8-2 over Rapier – Jernigan).
