MERIDIAN —    Meridian Community College is set to host the USTA/ITA Small College Southern JUCO Regional Championships at Northeast Tennis Center from Thursday-Saturday. To participate in the USTA/ITA regional tournaments teams must be a member of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

    The tournament is not a flighted tournament. One singles player from the men’s and women’s side and one doubles’ team from the men and women’s side will qualify to advance. This regional tournament is a lead-up to the National Small College Championships to be held in Mobile, Ala., at the Mobile Tennis Center Oct. 13-16. Winners of the Small College Super Bowl will receive wildcards into the Division I USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships (Nov. 3-6 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.)

    Teams participating in the Southern Regional are Itawamba Community College men and women, Hinds Community College men and women, Holmes Community College men, Jones County Junior College men and women, Marion Military Institute men and women, Meridian Community College men and women, and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College men and women.

    On the women’s side, Meridian’s Ivanna Echezuria, who had a stellar year as a freshman, hopes to advance in singles. Echezuria is the top returning player on the women’s team for Meridian and will look to make the biggest impact in the tournament for the Eagles. Echezuria led the Eagles to the 2012 Region 23 Championship and an appearance in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.

    “She had a fantastic freshman season and we are hoping for big things from her this season,” said MCC tennis coach Wanda McPhail. “Our men’s team will be very young this season and we have no international players on our roster this season. We are hoping to improve throughout the season, but this will be a big early test for our men.”

    The tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday morning at 10 a.m.



JUCO SOCCER

East Central    4

Co-Lin women    0

    Destiney Thomasich scored two goals and the host Warriors downed the Wolves on Monday.

    Kelsey Tadlock added one goal and two assists for ECCC, while Morgan Luke has one goal and one assist and Claire Milling chipped in with one assist.



East Central    3

Co-Lin men    3

    McGee Ledbetter netted two goals and an assist in a tie between the Warriors and Wolfpack on Monday in Decatur.

    Russ Thompson added a goal and an assist for ECCC.



JUCO FOOTBALL

EMCC freshmen Johnson, Rhodes earn Player of the Week honors

    SCOOBA — For their performances in top-ranked East Mississippi Community College’s 59-6 road win against Southwest Mississippi Community College last Thursday, Lion freshmen Quez Johnson and Morgan Rhodes have collected MACJC/jucoweekly.org Player of the Week recognition.

    Johnson, a product of Starkville High School, threw for 403 yards and five touchdowns on 21-of-28 passing to earn Offensive Player of the Week honors, while Rhodes, from Northwest Rankin High School, connected on a 22-yard field goal and was perfect on all eight of his point-after-touchdown attempts to score 11 points and claim Special Teams POTW accolades.  Holmes’ freshman cornerback Kris Givens, of Ridgeland, was tabbed the league’s Defensive POTW selection for his two interceptions in the Bulldogs’ 34-14 division win against Northeast Mississippi CC at Madison Centra;.

    Averaging 295 passing yards per game, with 10 touchdowns and only two interceptions, on the season, Johnson’s offensive totals against Southwest this past week become even more impressive when considering that the 6-foot-1, 225-pound signal-caller compiled the numbers while playing the first half and just the first offensive series of the second half during the Lions’ 53-point victory.

    In last week’s win at Southwest, Johnson and Rhodes helped East Mississippi mount 786 yards of total offense (464 passing & 322 rushing) – the most by a Buddy Stephens-coached EMCC squad. The Lions also reached the 50-point mark for the 10th time since Stephens took the helm in 2008.

    Now 3-0 on the year and winners of 15 consecutive games dating back to last year’s NJCAA National Championship season, the EMCC Lions return home to begin MACJC North Division action by playing host to Mississippi Delta Community College on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field.