The Dawson County High School varsity boys’ tennis team faced a tough matchup last week when they hosted North Hall in their region opener March 8.
The Trojans took the match 5-0, but the Tigers kept it close, leading to some optimism heading into the rest of the region schedule.
“It makes me have high hopes for the rest of the season,” said Head Coach Ryan Coker. “We have Lumpkin (County) on Tuesday. It’s going to be tough. They pushed a great team today, so hopefully when they go up to Lumpkin, they know they can fight and they don’t give up.”
The 5-0 score in the game is a little misleading, as several of the games were decided by just a couple of points and could have gone either way.
“We got beat 5-0, but the kids really stepped up tonight and did better than I thought they would,” said Coker about his team’s play vs. the 2017 Region 7-AAA runners-up. “(They) pushed a lot of the games to deuce, but we just couldn’t come out ahead.”
Before the team’s March 6 match was cancelled due to rain, Dawson County faced White County March 5 in what turned out to be their final chance at game action before starting the region schedule against North Hall.
Coker started a new line-up that saw a lot of underclassmen get some varsity action, however, the Tigers lost a close one to the Warriors, 3-2.
Kyle Phillips lost at the No. 1 singles spot, while Chandler Ingram won at the No. 2 singles spot, 8-4.
The surprise of the match came at the No. 3 singles spot when Brenden Swafford won 8-0 in his first ever singles varsity match.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, both doubles teams lost, giving the win to White County.
The boys will be back in action at home against Greater Atlanta Christian on Friday, after traveling to take on Lumpkin County earlier in the week.
Varsity girls
The DCHS varsity girls’ tennis team also didn’t fair too well against the reigning Region 7-AAA champions, losing 5-0 to North Hall on March 8.
It was a tough ask for the Lady Tigers to defeat the team that made a run to the semifinals of the state tournament last year, and they expectedly fell short to the state semifinalists.
A March 5 matchup was a different story, however, as the Lady Tigers swept White County 5-0.
Savanna Kennedy won at the No. 1 singles spot, 8-2, while teammate Abbey Haymond took the No. 2 singles matchup 8-1. Completing the singles sweep was Tyler Perry, who won at the No. 3 singles spot, 8-3.
In doubles, the No. 1 pairing of Isabella Brown and Zoe Grindstaff won their match, 8-4, while at the No. 2 spot, Ashlynn Anglin and Sammi Hafermalz won 8-3 to complete the team sweep.
Up next for the girls’ team is a trip to Lumpkin County followed by a home match Friday against Greater Atlanta Christian as the Lady Tigers try to rebound from their defeat to North Hall with a repeat of their match against White County.