OWENSBORO, Ky. — More than 200 of the top National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tennis players in the Southeast spent this week in Owensboro for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southeast Regional Championships, the first time the city has hosted the event.
Brescia University is the host school. Visit Owensboro helped recruit the tournament. Matches have been split among city and campus courts, including the William H. “Bill” Thompson Outdoor Courts, the Merchant Centre, Moreland Park and the Kentucky Wesleyan College courts. Regional winners advance to the national ITA Cup.
Brescia coach Warren Harris said the field has been deep enough to give his players a read they do not always get in conference play.
“There’s levels to it,” Harris said. “In our conference we’re probably one of the stronger teams. You want to see how you do against some higher-level, D-I style type players. It gives you a good goal or roadmap or some benchmark to set where you want to go.”
“This is a great tournament if you have the ambition to get better,” he said.
By Friday, Harris said three of his singles players had reached later rounds.
Junior Jada Flakes, 20, lost a close second match. She said she started tennis at 11 and had been looking forward to a home regional after weeks of practice.
“It was a big opportunity for all of us to show off our skills as Brescia, and we’re hosting too,” Flakes said. “Come out, show out.”
Her match did not start the way she wanted. She said she began to move and fight for points in the second set. She said the score reached 6-4 and the tiebreak went 6-8.
“It was close, but it was still a learning experience,” Flakes said. “I’m glad I got to play at all.”
She said the visiting teams were tough, especially on the men’s side, and that Brescia still had one woman left in the draw.
Owensboro had never hosted this regional before. Flakes, in her third year at Brescia, said that mattered to her as much as the bracket.
“I don’t feel like in the past two years that I’ve been here that this would have ever happened,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for us to show off Owensboro, bring in new people and maybe get more players and people interested in the game.”
Harris pointed to the Merchant Centre as the facility that sells the city to visiting teams.
“The Merchant Centre facility is a beautiful facility,” he said. “It’s almost like a Challenger tour, pro tour type tennis court. Twelve outdoor courts, six indoor courts. Beautiful facility for a smaller city like Owensboro. It shows it off.”
City parks said it is proud the courts can handle an event of this size. Play was scheduled Sept. 23 through Sept. 26, with practice Wednesday and competition beginning Thursday.
Flakes said she once wanted a professional career and still hopes to enter a few pro tournaments if she can raise her level. She said she knows she will play tennis for the rest of her life.
She did not always feel that way.
“I used to hate it, but everything about it actually makes me happy,” Flakes said. “When I’m on the court, it’s like everything goes away. It’s just you and the ball. This is like the time to release tension.”
She also credited the team around her.
“I love the teamwork, the communication and the vibe,” she said. “When we’re out here, we all support each other. I never had a team before Brescia. But it’s beautiful.”
Harris described the same sport in different words: the way a stroke is built, the way a player moves.
“There’s a certain drama or ballet to how you produce strokes,” he said. “That’s the part that I can’t explain. You’re just hitting a fuzzy ball over a net. I don’t know how exciting that is for most people. But I love it.”