BEARDEN
Catholic High tennis champion has rare combination of talents
John Shearer, Shopper News
Lillian “Lillie” Murphy of Catholic High capped quite a high school career by winning the state Division II-AA state singles tennis title on May 23 for the second year in a row.
She also won state doubles titles her freshmen and sophomore years and three consecutive state team championships her three undergraduate years after the team had also won in 2021. The Lady Irish team this year also reached the finals before losing to Baylor from Chattanooga in what was thought to be a slight rebuilding year.
With such a resume, Murphy is considered by area tennis observers as one of the best Knoxville high school tennis players of recent years. But pinpointing her reasons for all her success might not result in the same agreement.
Her coach, Rusty Morris, thinks she has a lot of positive physical and mental skills that together make her hard to beat. She, meanwhile, pointed out some of the intangibles that she thinks have helped her both succeed and enjoy the sport.
“What I lack in technique, I make up for in spirit,” she said with a chuckle over the phone a few days after the state tournament while trying to sum up her secret to success.
Lillian Murphy of Catholic High School won her second straight state singles title in what her coach called a “dominant” performance. She has signed to play at Furman University.
That spirit, however, has come along with a rigorous routine of practicing tennis six days a week, and practicing or playing two to four hours each day when she does not have a match. She also does complementary physical workouts three times a week.
All this work and talent have given her the complete skills, her coach says. And like with success in many sports, her ability starts with being good defensively.
“She has unbelievable defensive skills, and it is hard to get a ball by her,” he said. “She can scramble and get it back deep. It is hard to get a ball by her that she can’t return deep.
“And she is quick and good at looping and sliding the ball. And she has a good forehand. Usually, people are one or the other (offensive or defensive players), but she can do both. And she is a fighter and makes her teammates around her better.”
Despite the ease in which she now plays, the Furman signee came into tennis almost unexpectedly. Her mother, Whitney, grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with no sports background, while her father, Paul, played basketball at Bearden High.
But after he started playing some tennis at Cherokee Country Club as a working adult, and she began hitting some balls back to him for fun beginning at the age of 4 or 5, the passion was born.
“By the time I was 8 or 9 I started taking lessons at the Knoxville Racquet Club,” she said. The pro who began working with her there, Dave Thornton, the father of former Catholic teammate and current Lady Vol player Maeve Thornton, is still her personal teacher, she said.
Besides playing tennis this fall at Furman, she also plans to study business or entrepreneurship. Her father works in real estate development, and she might eventually get involved in that line of work, she said.
She will also study closely the lay of the tennis landscape and see if her game can continue to develop in college or beyond, while knowing a lot of factors can come into play.
Regardless of her long-term future, it has been quite a last few years in the sport for her. She admitted that she leaves with plenty of great memories of playing and being a part of the Catholic team. That includes when they won the 2024 state team title after her younger sister, Lauren, came back from various injuries to get the clinching point in the finals.
“And my freshman year in the state finals against Baylor, I won the doubles,” she said of her first big match in 2022 on a top-level high school stage. “And this season has been fun to see the girls come up. I was pretty pleased how far we got.”
And winning the state singles title a second time this year in dominating fashion − 6-1, 6-2 over Baylor’s Margarette Berdy at the Adams Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro − was special, too. For her, the experience of being there for the second time was like having an extra coach.
Murphy is considered by area tennis observers as one of the best Knoxville high school tennis players of recent years.
“It was like a good way to end my high school career, and it helped to have some feeling like I had been there before,” she said. “I took care of business, and it was a great win.”
Coach Morris, who is also the tennis director at the Cedar Bluff Racquet Club, pointed out that she is one of several players to have helped carry Catholic to success in recent years along with Maeve Thornton, Eleni Liakonis and Payton Carroll, among others.
And this year was special for her the way she dominated the state singles tournament to achieve the feat of never having lost a singles match over the last four years.
“That is the most dominant performance I’ve seen in a while,” Morris added in summation.
HALLS
Family creates sustainable lifestyle, sweetened by sourdough, on Good Works Farm
Al Lesar, Shopper News
There was a time when Kelly Lopez couldn’t get that baking thing right.
Cookies would turn out either raw or burnt to a crisp.
A hairdresser for years, Lopez never dreamed that baking would become one of her passions.
Kelly Lopez sells baked goods, flowers and vegetables at the stand in front of Good Works Farm in Corryton.
Of course, while living most of her life out West, she had no clue that she would ever embrace running a farm in East Tennessee.
Kelly’s parents have lived in Corryton for a while. Since 2015, she and her husband, Albert, had wanted to move their family near them. It took seven years to get everything in order, but they sold most of their possessions and bought a 2½-acre farm at 6403 Maloneyville Road adjacent to Kelly’s parents — sight unseen.
The population of Good Works Farm — besides Albert and Kelly Lopez and their daughters — includes 22 chickens, one rooster, two guinea hens, two cats and four dogs.
“We bought the farm after doing a FaceTime call with a Realtor,” Lopez said. “We were looking for somewhere that would give us a sustainable lifestyle. We found this and we just love it.”
Good Works Farm has been thriving for the past few years.
Flowers, produce and baked goods for sale
The population of the farm — besides Albert and Kelly and their daughters, ages 12 and 4 — includes 22 chickens, one rooster, two guinea hens, two cats and four dogs. Several “big, fat ducks that won’t fly away” are planned to be added.
Kelly Lopez’s specialty is sourdough baked goods. She makes English muffins, cookies, plain sourdough bread, and cinnamon twist and jalapeño variations.
There’s also a 4,000-square-foot garden in which berries, tomatoes, grapes, potatoes, corn, cucumbers and flowers are planted.
The flowers and overflow vegetables that aren’t used by family and friends are sold at the stand in front of the farm, along with baked goods Lopez makes. She also makes natural beauty products.
Her specialty is sourdough concoctions, more than just bread. She bakes up with sourdough English muffins as well as sourdough cookies. Besides plain sourdough bread, there are cinnamon twist or jalapeño variations.
Hard work leaves no regrets
A loaf of sourdough bread takes two days to make.
“A lot of time and patience goes into the bread,” Lopez said. “On Wednesdays, I make the dough. After it’s put together, you stretch and fold. Then, it rests. After that, it’s put in the refrigerator overnight. Having it bulk fermented makes it easier on the gut.”
A plain loaf of sourdough bread is $8 at the stand. Cinnamon twist and jalapeño versions are $12. Cookies, with the favorites being chocolate chip and s’mores, are $5 a bag.
The extra produce that isn’t used by family and friends of the Lopez family are sold at the stand in front of Good Works Farm in Corryton.
“A lot of people never heard of sourdough cookies, but they’re great,” Lopez said. “You don’t really taste the sourdough, but they have a great texture.”
In addition to caring for the farm and the livestock and doing the baking, Lopez said she homeschools her two daughters. They didn’t get a tractor until recently, so previous work was done by hand.
“I love it here,” Lopez said. “There has been a lot of hard work — blood, sweat and tears getting everything started — but I have no regrets. Some people look forward to going on vacation. I enjoy being right here at home.
“I love seeing people enjoy something I’ve baked. That’s the best satisfaction anyone can have.”
Lopez said for now, the eggs they get aren’t for sale. They are given to family and friends.
For more information or to place an order, go to Good Works Farm TN on Facebook or Instagram.
Kelly Lopez and her family sell produce, flowers and sourdough baked goods in a stand at their Corryton home, Good Works Farm.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Shopper News brings you the latest happenings in your community