Woodson, Berry claim doubles championship

By Corine Gatti

Published: May 17, 2008

FORT DEFIANCE – The second-round of the Southern Valley championship proved to be a nail-biter in the boys’ singles Saturday afternoon. Rockbridge’s Dominik Lehmann dominated during the regular season and won the championship on Saturday defeating Stuarts Draft’s Scott Nelson 6-4 in the last set.
In the first set Lehmann cruised to an easy 6-1 win, but Nelson knotted the match with a 6-3 win in the second set.
The foreign exchange student from Germany said he was getting anxious and showed his emotions openly on the court.
Nelson stayed right on his heels, which kept onlookers and his opponent on edge.
“After I lost the second set [6-3] I was worried, because I wanted to win the championship,” Lehmann said. “It was tough, he [Nelson] came out strong and played a good game.”
Draft tennis coach Al Hite said that’s what Nelson does.
“[Nelson] had a great performance, but he had a couple of tough breaks, but he stuck in there,” Hite said. “If the foreign exchange student from Germany wasn’t here, he would probably be the No.1 seed, but it was a good match.”
Robert E. Lee’s Rachael Obenschain will move on to regionals as the No.1 seed after defeating the Cougar’s Jessica Miller 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the girls singles.
The Little Giants’ Shawntee Woodson and Kiawna Berry defeated the Wildcats’ Carolyn Higgins and Hannah Edwards in a three set match. The Little Giants won the first set 6-2. The Rockbridge pair tied the match in the second set 6-2, but fell 6-4 in the third.
“We kept pushing in our last set to get the victory, I’m just happy that we got the win,” Woodson said.
Oddly, their opponents rejoiced with them after match.
“They really show good sportsmanship, and we have a lot of fun on the court with them,” Higgins said. “But this was a big victory for us as a school, we haven’t made it to doubles in six years, so we were just happy to be on the court.”
Rockbridge will go into the Region III tournament as the No. 2 seed.
Lee’s Will Sowers and Thomas Bell came back on Draft’s Nelson and Brent Floyd 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the boys doubles to take home the Southern Valley championship. 
“We were just having fun out there,” Sowers said. “We were both becoming tense, so we started to have fun and it worked.”