Title run ends for Vucic:Lady Pioneer beaten in state quarterfinals

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard

Warren County senior Tina Vucic delivers a serve against Brentwood’s Hayley Dittus during the quarterfinals of the TSSAA state championship tournament Wednesday at The Baylor School in Chattanooga. Vucic fell to Dittus in three sets.

CHATTANOOGA — For Warren County High School senior Tina Vucic, the road to the TSSAA tennis championship tournament was a relatively easy one.

But once she got there, the challenge of becoming the Lady Pioneers’ first-ever state tennis champion proved to be too much to bear.

Vucic, an exchange student from Serbia, fell in the quarterfinals of the Class AAA singles tourney, losing a hard-fought three-set match to Brentwood’s Hayley Dittus, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.

“She played tough, and I really thought she had a shot at winning this thing,” said WCHS coach David Dunlap. “But she drew an awfully tough player, and played a tough match against her.”

Having rolled through an unbeaten regular season, then keeping her undefeated record going through district and region tournament play, Vucic was greeted by a whole new level of competition as one of the state’s final eight players.

Dittus showed her tenacity midway through the first set. After Vucic went up five games to two, the Brentwood junior battled back to tie the score at 5-5 before Vucic won the final two games to take the set.

Dittus carried momentum into the second set, building a 4-0 lead, but Vucic stepped up in the clutch, winning the next four games to tie the set at four games apiece. Dittus broke Vucic’s serve to retake the lead, but the Lady Pioneer senior returned the favor in the next game to knot the score at 5-5.

Trouble with her service game, a recurring theme of Wednesday’s match, came back to haunt Vucic as the second set wore on, however. A pair of double faults helped Dittus take game five, and the Lady Bruins’ top seed served out the winning game to force a third set.

As the heat of the day and the pressure of competition continued to bear down on the two players, Dittus’ experience in state competition seemed to make the difference, as she made short work of her challenger from WCHS in the deciding set. After losing the first two games, Vucic held serve to win the third, and broke Dittus’ momentum two games later to cut her deficit to 4-2. But Dittus held on, winning the final two games to take the third set and the match.

Dittus, who along with her Brentwood teammates captured the state title in the Class AAA team competition, went on to fall to defending champion Kristin Noble in the singles semifinals, losing 6-4, 0-6, 4-6. Noble fell in the championship match to Jennifer Williams, 0-6, 5-7.

Vucic finished her season with a 21-1 record.