BY DAVE LINK
Lillie Murphy took on several new roles with the Catholic girls’ tennis team in the spring and managed them to a tee.
The rising senior became the Lady Irish’s No. 1 player, taking over the top spot with the 2023 graduation of Maeve Thornton, who led Catholic to three straight Division II-AA state titles before going to Furman to play in college.
Murphy led the Lady Irish to a four-peat on May 22.
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Catholic defeated Chattanooga Baylor 4-3 in the state championship match, beating the Red Raiders for the fourth consecutive year in the title match at Adams Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro.
“Lauren stepped up in the most unbelievable way,” Catholic coach Rusty Morris said. “The way she handled the pressure was incredible. She did it all year.”
Two days after leading Catholic to the team title, Murphy defeated Hutchison’s Melanie Woodbury 6-4, 6-3, for the Division II-AA state singles championship won by Thornton the previous three years.
Murphy, the 5Star Preps Player of the Year, has never lost a high school match. She won state doubles titles in 2022 and ’23 with Eleni Liakonis, a 2024 graduate and Samford signee.
“It was really exciting,” Murphy said. “I’ve won doubles the past two years, but winning singles, you’re the only one out there, so you kind of put it all out there. I’ve been working really hard, and it’s nice to get the end result.
“Winning tournaments is a hard thing to do. Winning matches at tournaments, you’re probably going to win a few (matches), but winning a full tournament is definitely harder.”
Murphy not only assumed Catholic’s top singles position in the spring; she became the player to beat at state with the graduation Thornton, the three-time 5Star Preps Player of the Year (2021-23).
Another new role for Murphy, ranked No. 1 in the state, No. 17 in the Southeast, and No. 51 nationally for the Class of 2025 by tennisrecruiting.net (as of June 22).
“High school season, a lot of tournament players don’t do it,” she said, “but I think it’s really helped my tennis game a lot doing high school because I get to play where I’m kind of hunted after, where everyone wants to beat me. But I think you have to come out there with that kind of pressure. I’ve dealt with that pressure really well and I’m happy to see that result.”
Morris had to do some major lineup reshuffling this year with the 2023 graduations of Thornton and Gigi Sompayrac, who’s playing at Division I Anderson (S.C.) University.
Catholic was almost assured of clinching the doubles point the previous two years with Thornton-Sompayrac at No. 1 doubles and Murphy-Liakonis at No. 2.
This year, Murphy teamed with her sister, rising junior Lauren Murphy, at 2 doubles with Liakonis and Payton Carroll at 1.
Lillie became a coach-on-the-court, playing and helping her younger sister in doubles.
Yet another new role for the elder Murphy.
“We thought this year was going to be difficult because we were having to split Eleni and Lillie up to try to get two wins for the doubles point,” Morris said. “Lillie being able to play with her sister and really help her sister, who hadn’t played a match all last year (due to injury), to win all those big doubles matches was incredible because she helped her sister to cope with the pressure and how to set up points and also how to help each other be better.”
Lillie Murphy, who played No. 2 singles as a freshman and sophomore, has committed to play for Furman alongside Thornton.
And she’s already preparing for the next level, playing a full tournament schedule this summer along with tournaments during the school year.
“Winning is always the end goal, but I want to improve as much as I can before college,” Murphy said. “I also work out three times a week in addition to playing. I’m trying to up the workouts to get ready for college. Obviously, that’s still a year and a half away, but I still want to be ready in that aspect as well.”
Morris knows Murphy will be ready for her senior season at Catholic and beyond.
“The No. 1 thing about Lillie is what a great competitor she is,” Morris said. “Matches get tight and you hear her say, ‘Come on!’ and then she hits another level. There’s another gear that kicks in, but beyond that, the way she sets up points, she doesn’t give any easy points to her opponents. She doesn’t make early errors in points.
“She sets up every point, and she can do a variety of things. She can loop, she can slice, she can volley. She has so many different ways to beat someone because she has different things to draw on to do that.”