NCHSAA 4-A WOMEN'S TENNIS
 
           RALEIGH—The Panther Creek doubles team of Sammi Smith and Jordan Strickland won its third consecutive state title on Saturday afternoon in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 4-A women’s tennis championships on Friday at the Millbrook Exchange Park.

           Smith and Strickland did not drop a single game in their two straight-set victories on Friday and had a fairly easy time in their two matches on Saturday. The Panther Creek pair beat the Myers Park team of Katie Soden and Gaby Soden by 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, and then clinched the crown with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Caroline Pope and Brooke Pritchard of East Chapel Hill.
           
            Defending singles champion Susanne Boyden of Raleigh Wakefield won the state championship after surviving a three and one-half hour marathon in the morning semifinal.   Boyden outlasted Supriya Narisetti of Cary, who did not lose a game in four sets on Friday, by 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, and then took the championship over Winston-Salem R.J. Reynolds’ Peyton Pesavento in straight 6-3 sets.
 
 

NORTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
STATE 4-A WOMEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Millbrook Exchange Park
 
SATURDAY’S RESULTS
Singles—Semifinals
                  Suzanne Boyden (Raleigh Wakefield) def. Supriya Narisetti (Cary) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3; Peyton Pesavento (Winston-Salem Reynolds) def. Lauren Gish (Lake Norman) 6-2, 6-2.
 
Singles—Championship
                  Boyden (Wakefield) def. Pesavento (Winston-Salem Reynolds) 6-3, 6-3.
 
Doubles—Semifinals
                  Sammi Smith-Jordan Strickland (Cary Panther Creek) def. Katie Soden-Gaby Soden (Charlotte Myers Park) 6-2, 6-2; Caroline Pope-Brooke Pritchard (East Chapel Hill) def. Sara Ackerson-Ana Horvat (Cary Green Hope) 6-3, 6-3.
 
Doubles–Championship
                  Smith-Strickland (Panther Creek) def. Pope-Pritchard (East Chapel Hill) 6-1, 6-0.