5th Region Tennis Tournament
Hannah Lowman had just finished her marathon semi-final match against two time 5th Region Champion Laura Hinkle and after the 4-6,6-3, 10-8 win that vaulted her into the Championship match, she took a moment to ponder her situation. This was the senior’s first year as a singles player and although she and her former doubles partner Allie Sutton had reached the finals in that category, she had never been victorious in the last game of the tournament. 
A similar situation awaited Elizabethtown’s Ameer Haider, who’s previous journey in the Region Tournament had ended in a first round loss. This time, the junior had beaten No.2 seeded Marion County’s Bryce Spalding and would face his teammate junior Kent Smith, who found a way to win over top seeded John Hardin’s Herbert Veldenz. The funny thing about the Singles finals were that both Haider and Smith were pleasant surprises as neither were seen by many to be a factor getting that far even though the Elizabethtown Boys did win the Conference team title. 
“Nobody saw us coming.” said Haider, who would beat his teammate 6-3, 6-3 to win his first Region Singles Title. “We peaked at the right time.” What pretty much amounted to an intra squad match, Haider found the winning way as Elizabethtown took the team title.
Meanwhile, there was a rematch of a different kind going on in the Boys doubles as Elizabethtown’s Hunain Abri and Nathan Henson faced off against Central Hardin’s Trevin Cox and Arthur Pelissier in the final. Although Abri and Henson were together during last season’s doubles match in the final, only Cox was a familiar face on the Central Hardin side as Jacob Kerr had graduated and Pelissier is a foreign exchange student from France. Regardless, the Bruin duo came up victorious again, 6-4, 6-4 in a match which had plenty of energy, emotion and a loud hometown audience. Although the E-town duo stayed tough for much of the match, Cox gave plenty of praise to the Central Hardin following who came out in full force to make his last Region match an winning one.
On the girls side it was ALL BLUE as the North Hardin girls participated in what looked like a BIG BLUE intrasquad Region final. After Lowman’s emotional draining win the previous night against Hinkle, the senior had to go against the Conference Champion in teammate freshman Addison Sutton. Lowman continued her torrid play with a 6-3, 6-1 win for her first Singles Championship. It capped a strange senior season for Lowman, who in her first year playing singles for the Trojans came away with a trophy after many wondered if her chance to go out victorious had passed her.
With the team title in the bank, the North Hardin duo of Allie Sutton and Alyssa Dowdell defeated their doubles teammates sophomores Karina Carrasquillo and Lesleigh Lowman, 6-2, 6-1 and finalize a wonderful final day of 5th Region Tennis as three of the four champions had a different look. Hopefully, the state tournament will be just as much fun.
