Girls State Tennis Championships Have a Low Country Flavor
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Columbia – Saturday was a great day for tennis at the Cayce Tennis and Fitness Center where the Girls state tennis championship were held with a couple of first time participates, a couple of rematches from last season and a match between two of the all-time state tennis powers.
From the start of the day loud cheers could be heard from all over the complex as most of the matches were nail-bitters.
The Championships started at 10 with AAAAA Division 1 and 2 and the class AAAA getting things started with the AAAAA Division 2 match finishing first.
The West Florence Knights battled with TL Hanna Yellow Jackets in the AAAAA Division 2 match. It was West Florence first trip to the state finals while TL Hanna was looking for their third state championship. They brought home the title in 2013.
While the match was tough it was the first timers from Florence who walked away with their first state championship winning the match 4-2.
“It feels amazing to hold this trophy,” said West Florence head coach Abby Sullivan. “This something we worked for, we has been to the lower state finals the last three years so it is really amazing to come out on the winning side.”
Coach continued, “One of the keys to getting here was beating Myrtle Beach. The match was intense and hard fought on every court. I feel that experience helped us today push through when things got tough.”
The Knights got off to fast start as Shelby White won the number singles over Melina Moncada Lema in straight sets 6-3,6-2 and in the number two singles Grace Murrell also won in straight sets 6-1,6-1 over Hanna’s Emery Tripamer.
The number two doubles made it a 3-0 lead for the Knights when Mattie Segars and Lillian Guerriero defeated Emry Smith and Karis Kim 6-3,6-0.
The Yellow Jackets fought back in the three and four singles with Josie Eskridge and Meri Drake Venturella winning their matches. Eskridge beat Elle Brannon in a third set tie breaker 10-7 after they split the first games 7-5, 4-6 while Venturella beat Maia Rivera-Cintron 6-4,6-3 to bring the match to 3-2 West Florence.
The Knights would end the match in the number five singles when Emma Watford beat Lauren Yaekoub 6-3 in the first set and 7-6 with a 7-3 win in the tie breaker. The win made it 4-2 with Knights getting ready to hold the trophy.
“I am so happy to have won. I didn’t know that my match would win the state title, I thought it would just tie it at 3-3. To find that out was so exciting for me and I just had to dig it out for my teammates,” said Emma.
The AAAAA Division 1 match was between two of the all-time top programs in state history in Spartanburg and Wando. Spartanburg was in it’s 22 state final looking for win number 12 while Wando was in their 19th looking for their 10th. The Vikings last title was in 2018 beating Wando 4-3. The Warriors were looking to go back-to-back for the first time since they won six straight from 2004-2009. The teams were 2-2 in state championship matches between the two.
It was Deja Vue all over again for Wando as the Warriors needed to win the number one doubles match to win the state championship. Seniors Mia El-Kheddiwi and Calli Casazza did what they did last year win the fourth match of the day to give Wando the state championship 4-3 over Spartanburg. They won their match in straight sets 6-2,6-4 over the Vikings Ti’arri Watkins and Wallace Lynch.
“It was really exciting for it come down to us again. I love playing doubles with Mia. We are a great team and we wanted to bring a lot of energy to the match,” said Calli.
“The first thing I thought was we did this last year in doubles. I am so confident when I play with Calli. She keeps level headed. So, we went out, went with flow, and took the match,” Mia said.
Head Coach Bob Lang said, “It was basically like last year, we were tied at three all with River Bluff and Calli and Mia came out and won that match. They did the same thing today. The entire day nip and tuck with every match being intense.”
“We were happy to be in position to win the match with our number one doubles and we would have liked to pull that out. I am really proud of our team this year,” said Spartanburg head coach Devin Hileski.
The Vikings were on the verge of claiming their 12th state title with a 3-2 lead as they won the number one, four and five singles matches. Watkins beat El-Kheddiwi in straight sets 6-4,6-1 in the number one singles, Mary English Hammett defeated Madelyn Langheim 6-2,6-2 in the number four singles and Myers Brantley defeated Mae Keegan 6-1, 6-3.
“It is fun being here and to be able to win my match. I felt like I was in a good rhythm and I just made the shots I wanted to make,” said Watkins.
In the number three singles, the Warriors needed a win to stay alive and up was seventh grader Cyanna Enright. On the court for the Vikings was eighth Ana Kate Alverson. Enright won the first set 6-0 but the second one was much different as the two combatants battled to 6 all in the second set forcing a tie breaker. Enright was down 4-1 in the tie breaker and on the verge of heading to a third set. She dug deep and won 7 of the next 9 points to win the tie breaker 8-6 and tie the match at 3.
“Cyanna played great and made an incredible come back to win the second set. I am excited to watch her career,” said coach Lang.
Wando became the 7th in school in state history with 10 or more girls tennis state championships joining Bishop England (27), Christ Church (18), Myrtle Beach (16), Hilton Head (13), Spartanburg (11), and Belton (10).
The AAAA match between AC Flora and Gray Collegiate also came down to the number one doubles match. AC Flora was back in the AAAA finals for the second straight year after falling to Bishop England 4-2 last year. It is their seventh trip to the state finals while this was Gray’s first attempt to win the girls state championship.
The Falcons and the War Eagles had battled to a 3-3 tie when twins Emily and Catherine Smith took the court against Morgan Horlback and Kate Snyder. The twins won the match in straight sets 6-4,6-3 to give the Falcons a 4-3 win and three third state girls tennis title in eight trips. It was head coach Amy Martin’s second.
“My number one doubles, are my number one and number two singles and they are twin sisters. They know each other thoughts, what they are going to do and they communicate. We felt good heading into that final match,” said coach Martin.
“I still don’t believe it. We just worked so hard this season so I am really glad all our hard work paid off. Coming up short last didn’t feel great but winning this year feels awesome,” said Emily Smith.
Gray Collegiate won the number one, number three and number four singles matches. Horlback beat Emily 6-2,7-6, Alisa Petushko beat Carlyn Guffee 6-3,6-2 and Cecily Lokodi beat Ruby Cecchini 6-0,6-1.
The Falcons won the number two singles with Catherine beating Snyder 6-3,3-6, 10-4 and Liza Stavrou beat Sidney Moore 6-4,6-0 in the number five singles. The number doubles team Ella Foley and Stokely Haile defeated Mary Catherine Gabrielli and Stella Malcom 6-3,6-4.
The next match to finish was the A/AA match between Academic Magnet and Landrum in a rematch of last years final won by Academic Magnet 6-0. The Raptors won their first title last year after four runner up finishes. The Cardinals were looking for their first championship.
The Raptors won the first four singles match to go back-to-back winning 4-0. Maggie Schwartz won the number one singles 6-1,6-1 over Eva Burnett, Sophia Easterbrook beat Ilana Taylor 6-2,6-2 in the twos, Kamya Pham beat Ellis Burnett 6-3,6-1 in the threes, and Archer Fanning won the number four 6-2,6-1 over Amelia Campbell.
First year head coach Mark Borst was excited to go back-to-back but it was different year for the Raptors. “Last years head coach did a great job in winning it all. I always say no matter what it is a new season. I told my athletic director that to be the best you have to play the best. Even though we had six loss this season, 17-6. We played some of the top teams during the year. Landrum is a good team and they were 21-1 so I felt we were the underdogs,” said coach Borst.
Captain Sophia Easterbrook said , “I’m a senior so I’m over the moon with winning back-to-back championships. I think this is such a great team. We are young team, a passionate team and we did such a great job all year. I could not be prouder of the people around me.”
The AAA match conclude the days events and it was another rematch from last year as 18 times state champion Christ Church was taking on four-time state champ Oceanside Collegiate. Oceanside won last year’s match up 4-3 as the match came down to the number one doubles match. The win was the fourth consecutive title for the Landsharks.
The Landsharks won four of the five singles matches to down the Cavaliers 4-2 and win their fifth consecutive state championship.
“They are all special,” said Oceanside head coach Shawn Harris. “Every year is different. The past four years we had more seniors. This is the youngest team I have ever had so do to win this one was very exciting and we knew it was going to tough. They girls knew they had to step up and they did that.
Coach continued, “ Christ Church is an unbelievable team. We played them last year and had another dramatic ending. They are a young team as well so we look to battle with them many more times.”
Maeve DeFord got things started in the right direction by winning the number one singles 6-0,6-0 over Lexie Sobocinski.
Sephina Tringai won the number three singles beating Elza Cunningham 6-0, 6-1, Adi Levy beat Sadler Fox 6-4,6-3 in the number four singles and Sophia Sebold clinched the match by winning the number five singles in a tie breaker 10-8 over Mary Bess Williams.
The Cavaliers won the number two singles when Lydia Mahfood beat Annsen Saulisbury 6-3,6-3 and the number two doubles of Karyston Davis and Elle Hawks defeated Ellore Besta and Kacy Kesner 6-0,6-2.
