Rebels repeat as region champs, punch ticket to state

JOSH LANE

josh.lane@thedailytimes.com

Spencer Christen was the visionary. Tate Stokes was initially skeptic.

Christen had the dream way back during his freshman season at Maryville that he and his best friend/ doubles partner, Stokes, would win the state championship their senior year. Christen never lost sight of that goal, no matter how many times Stokes said he didn’t believe him.

It wasn’t until last season, when the two Rebels made a run to state tournament semifinals, that Stokes finally accepted that Christen’s idea may not have been as much of a fantasy as he thought.

One year later, Christen and Stokes are ready to end their prep tennis careers having made good on that promise.

The Rebel seniors won their second consecutive Region 2-AA Doubles Championship on Monday at John Sevier Park — besting their younger Maryville teammates Tristian Brown and Riley Chapman 6-1, 6-1 in the title match — to seal their spot in the TSSAA Class AA State Tournament.

They open the state quarterfinals against Hendersonville’s Brooks Berry/ Lincoln Elrod at 8 a.m. on Thursday, May 14 in Chattanooga — three wins away from turning an ambitious goal into a reality.

“Our goal is to win the whole thing, so we got three more to go,” Christen told The Daily Times. “We’re ready to go get it.”

Christen and Stokes’ path to the

Maryville’s Spencer Christen (right) and Tate Stokes (left) celebrate a point in the Region 2-AA Doubles Championship on Tuesday at John Sevier Park.

COURTESY JEFF WEAVER

region title opened with a one-sided victory over Halls’ Kevin Carlson/ Turner Reed, 6-0, 6-0, on Monday in the semifinals. Their sophomore teammates, Brown and Chapman, handled their semifinal bout without much trouble, 6-3, 6-1, against Campbell County’s Will Croley/ Davide Marcosano, setting up an all-Maryville tournament final for the second time in three weeks — the toptwo doubles squads met for the district championship on April 22. Brown and Chapman won one more game against their senior compatriots than they did in the district title match, but Christen and Stokes’ experience, bolstered by their drive to return to state, proved too much to overcome.

Maryville’s No. 2 team took a major step forward in 2026. Last year they were freshman just getting their first taste of high school tennis, and now, Brown and Chapman are poised to enter their junior season leading the Rebels down the same path Christen and Stokes blazed.

“It’s super exciting that those two guys are going to carry the load next year, considering that Spencer and Tate are graduating,” Maryville head coach Christian Burns said. “The torch is being passed.”

Christen and Stokes learned a lesson through their region-title defense that they hope continues to serve them well next week in Chattanooga. Stokes pointed to their District 4-AA semifinal match against William Blount’s Blaine Barber/Troy Boring as the turning point in their postseason run.

The two Govs nearly ended the Rebels’ playoffs hopes before they got started, taking them to a tiebreaker before the Maryville duo survived, 6-4, 3-6, 10-2. Stokes said that near-miss reset their focus and reminded them they “weren’t guaranteed anything” just because they finished top-four in the state the year before.

The Maryville pair have only dropped three games in three victorious matches since then and are on their way back to the state tournament, looking to check off that final box.

“I honestly keep thinking back to the moment it was all almost over against William Blount,” Stokes said. “Just being thankful that we were able to pull through on that, because now we get a chance to go.”

Maryville’s Spencer Christen (left) and Tate Stokes (right) won the Region 2-AA Doubles Championship on Tuesday at John Sevier Park.

COURTESY JEFF WEAVER