After a season in which they lost only one match, the Lady Cougar tennis team was beaten in a tie-breaker in last week's Third Region Tennis Tournament, sending Daviess County to the state tournament as regional champs.

After four days of competition at Owensboro's Moreland Park last week, the Lady Panthers and the Lady Cougars found themselves in a tie for the team lead, creating the need for a four-match playoff on Friday.

The singles matches were split, with Daviess County's star Jennifer Settle beating Grayson County's number-one, Susan Higdon, 6-2, 6-1, while the Lady Cougars' Christie Bolton beat Daviess' Sarah Durall 7-5, 6-3.

In doubles, the Lady Cougars' Abby Watkins and Candace Skaggs beat the Daviess County pair of Kendall Fruge and Kanwal Maheshwari 6-1, 6-4, but Daviess' Ashley Flesher and Avni Maru beat Grayson's Sarah Rae Killingbeck and Hannah Vincent 7-5, 6-3.

That left things in a tie and the officials went to tie-break statistics of games won during the tournament. That put Daviess County into the state tournament as they had won two more games than Grayson County over the whole tournament.

"This is one of those seasons I will always remember," said Cougar Coach Sherry Vincent. "The opportunities missed..."

Senior Bryce Meredith earned a trip to the finals this week in Lexington after he defeated Daviess' Bobby Whitmer 3-6, 6-0 (7-5).

Meredith and Whitmer had met twice during the regular season and Meredith won both in close matches. This one was no different as Meredith had to survive the tie-breaker.

With their win, Skaggs and Watkins earned another trip to Lexington.

As things turned out, Bolton and Higdon faced each other in a playoff to determine the final singles representative for the Third Region.