NCHSAA crowns first champions of the 2023-24 school year at Women’s Tennis Individual Championships
CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Women’s Tennis Individual Championships concluded on Saturday at four different locations. Below are recaps from each championship.
4A Championships – Millbrook Exchange Tennis Center in Raleigh
Apex Friendship’s Julianne Izod won her second NCHSAA 4A Doubles title in a row, this time with Carolyn Izod as her partner. The duo topped Leesville Road’s Mia Caruana and Diana Higgins in the championship match on Saturday 7-6 [7-5], 6-2. The win is also the second women’s tennis individual title for Apex Friendship.
Over the course of four matches, the Izod’s dropped just 20 games. Their three wins leading up to the finals were 6-3, 6-0; 6-4, 6-1; and 6-2, 6-2.
In the singles bracket, Broughton’s Allison Harris won the 11th 4A singles title in school history after a comeback win against Jordan’s Samantha Slowik in the championship match. Slowik took the first set 6-2 before Harris claimed the final two sets 6-1, 6-2 to seal the win.
3A Championships – Burlington Tennis Center
Terry Sanford’s doubles pair of Pauline Bui and Loren Galaviz rolled to the school’s first women’s doubles championship since 1996. Bui and Galaviz topped Fike’s Caroline and Kathryn Adkins in the championship match 6-1, 6-0. The Bulldogs’ lost just nine games in the weekend run to the title.
In the singles’ championship, McKinley Battle came back to beat Rennie Liu in the championship match to give Rocky Mount its first-ever women’s individual tennis championship. Liu won the first set 6-3 but Battle rallied to win the next two sets 6-0, 6-1.
2A Championships – Ting Park in Holly Springs
Hendersonville’s Eliza Perry and Ramsey Ross earned their third consecutive 2A doubles’ crown on Saturday as they topped Millie and Cora Wymbs from Salisbury 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match.
The win gives Perry four doubles’ championships as she won the 2020 title with McCollough Perry. Perry and Ross lost just three games on the weekend, all to Forbush’s Carolina Myers and Salem Parker in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Research Triangle senior Olivia Hankinson defended her 2A Singles Championship and won her third individual championship overall as she dominated the competition at Ting Park. Hankinson, who also won a doubles title in 2020 with Sabrina Grewal, dropped just four sets in her four matches on Friday and Saturday.
In the championship match, Hankinson beat Greene Central’s Anna Katherine Medlin 6-1, 6-0.
1A Championships – Cary Tennis Park
Triangle Math & Science’s doubles pair of Sasha Korjova and Brianna Viets took home the 1A doubles crown with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Mount Airy’s Carrie Marion and Ella Brant in the championship match. Korjova and Viets dropped just four games in the championship weekend as they gave TMSA its first women’s individual crown.
In the singles’ bracket, Highland Tech’s Madison Darnell topped Many Nallaganagu from the North Carolina School of Science and Math in the championship match 7-5, 6-2. Darnell reached the final after being teammate Katelin Vaher 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals and Chatham Charter’s Elphie Spillman 6-3, 6-1 in the quarters.
