Sweep

Corbin coach Curt Hart said he was able to sleep well before Friday’s regional tennis finals. He should have been able to after all, it was Ryan Logan-Blake Freeman vs. Lee Crawford-Brody Freeman in the doubles’ finals and Lance Freeman vs. Taylor Jones in the singles’ finals…get the picture. They all play for the Corbin Redhounds.
It was the first time in region history that a team as swept both sides of the tournament brackets and put players from the same team in the finals of the singles and doubles.
“It was such an exciting day that I actually slept well,” said Hart. “When you’re expected to win their is a lot of pressure on you. I knew my number ones would play well but the number twos which was Lee, Brody and Taylor. They played beyond expectation.”
“They played so strong, today was like a practice for us,” said Hart. “I just sit back and watched them play, it was a little unusual because I really didn’t feel I needed to coach. I wanted to coach so I could cheer one and console the others.”
“This is the first time in our region, including the Richmond Region which goes back to the early 80s that we have won the most points possible which is 18,” said Hart.
“But, what I liked about today, even though they were playing their teammates they played hard,” said Hart.
It was the sixth straight doubles’ champions for Corbin High School and fifth for junior Blake Freeman third for Ryan Logan. Blake Freeman had teamed up with Robert Porter (now at the University of the Cumberlands) for three titles and last year won with Logan as his teammate. Jarrod Carroll and Logan won the title when he was a seventh grader.
“This team has been on a mission,” said Hart. “They have tried to play the toughest competition as they possibly can.”
Logan and Freeman went into the regional with a 14-1 record, losing only a team from Danville High School. In the regional, the duo took the number one seed and a first-round bye. Their first match came against Winkler-Hensley of Pineville and the Corbin boys shutout the Lions, 6-0, 6-0. The moved into the quarterfinals against Clay County’s Davis and Word. Again, it was an easy match, winning 6-0-, 6-1.
The semifinals saw the two take on fourth-seeded North Laurel. Lewis and Kain hopelessly tried to get to the finals, but Logan and Freeman tagged the two with a 6-0, 6-1 loss
With teammates, Lee Crawford and Brody Freeman pulling off a semifinal upset over Patel/Patel of Middlesboro, 6-2, 6-4, it meant a Corbin final.
The seventh grader (Freeman) and the freshman (Crawford) also handed North Laurel’s Holt/Montgomery a 6-0, 6-1 defeat then derailed Harlan’s Pope and Bianchi 6-2, 6-2 before taking down the Middlesboro duo in the semifinals.
The finals didn’t last near as long as younger brother Brodie would have liked. He and teammate, Crawford lost to the experienced pair 6-0, 6-0.
“We knew what we had to do,” said Blake Freeman, “And we came and we did it.”
Freeman said they plan to get tuned up for next week’s state tournament by taking on some old folks. “We’re going to try and play some of the older guys, our parents, to try and get us used to the harder players,” said Freeman.
“We worked hard all year,” said Logan. “We just built up to this moment. We want to win no matter what, once we were on the tennis courts, they were an opponent,” said Logan of the finals match. We are friends afterward and that’s all that matters.”
Freshman Lance Freeman worked his way to the region as the number one seed in the singles region. Freeman rolled through the tournament nearly untouchable. He had just one loss in 49 games. He defeated Whitley County’s William Tan in the second-round, 6-0, 6-0. Tan, a fifth grader, has won over Harlan’s Jacob Stoffle in the first round 6-0, 6-0.
Freeman shutout North Laurel’s Gil Bagang in the quarterfinals 6-0, 6-0. before meeting South Laurel’s Abba Mandiviwala in the semifinals. He was the only player to score against Freeman. However, the win was still an easy one for Freeman, 6-0, 6-1.
In the finals it was seventh grader Taylor Jones trying to pull off the huge upset. Jones knocked off second-seeded Colby Wilson of Whitley County in the semifinals, 6-4, 7-5.
Jones also struggled a bit before downing Clay County’s Andy House in the quarterfinals, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. In the championship match, he was unable to shake the steady Freeman, who won 6-0, 6-0.
Freeman said it was hard to enjoy winning this year’s championship. “Playing against Taylor and all, I like Taylor a lot and didn’t feel good beating him.”
“But, when you go out there, you have to put it past you when you are playing against your teammates because it gets down to an individual thing where you have to beat them,” said Freeman.
“It affects your seed and I wasn’t going to give him any games,” said Freeman. “If he was going to get them, he was going to have to earn them. I had to act like he was just a normal player.”
“This has been our focus, to play well in the region and win the tournament and do better than fifth in the state tournament this year,” Hart added. “We want to go up and have another good showing.”
“Not only was it a great treat winning the tournament but it was the first time we played on our home court,” said Hart. “That was an advantage for us. We are used to this surface plus our students got to come down when we needed support last Wednesday.”