NCHSAA WOMEN’S DUAL TEAM TENNIS TITLE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES SLATED FOR SATURDAY
BURLINGTON – The 19th annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championships in women’s dual team tennis will be contested on Saturday with four titles up for grabs at the Burlington Tennis Center.
The 1-A and 2-A finals will start at nine o’clock Saturday morning with the 3-A and 4-A matches starting at noon. All of the qualifiers won regional matches on Thursday to advance to the state finals, and there are four unbeaten teams among the eight finalists.
The 4-A match will feature perennial power East Chapel Hill (21-1) against unbeaten Charlotte Myers Park (17-0). East had a tough road to get to a final, having to knock off Raleigh Broughton, a school which has won eight state titles in this event, in the quarterfinals by a 5-4 score on Tuesday and then nipping Wilmington Hoggard 5-4 in the regionals on Thursday.
Myers Park slipped past four-time defending state champion Greensboro Page 5-4 in a Thursday Western Regional final.
Myers Park is in the championship match for the fifth time, but is still looking for its initial state crown and makes its first appearance since 1999. East won seven women’s dual team titles as a 3-A school and was runner-up to Page last year in the 4-A final.
There could a rematch of last weekend’s singles championship in which Myers Park’s Grace Baker defeated Jennifer Huang of East by 6-2, 6-2. Myers Park also had a pair of doubles teams make it to the state tournament quarterfinals.
Two unbeatens will collide for the 3-A championship, with Wilson Fike (18-0) tangling with Asheville T.C. Roberson (21-0). Fike is in the finals for the first time in 1995 and is seeking its first state title in three trips to the championship. Roberson is unbeaten in three previous state championship appearances but has not made the finals since 1992.
The T.C. Roberson team of Lauren Vaughn and Shannon Melrose rolled to the state 3-A doubles championship a week ago.
In 2-A, Salisbury (22-1) seeks its fifth state title in women’s dual team tennis as the Hornets face Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (22-1). Gibbons is in the finals for the second time in the last three years but lost to Salisbury 5-1 in the ’06 championship.
Salisbury’s top two doubles teams played one another for the state 2-A title, with the duo of Hannah Lebowitz-Kirstin Meyerhoeffer beating Shea Comadoll and Joy Loeblein. Lauren Brooker of Cardinal Gibbons captured the singles championship in this classification.
The 1-A championship pits two newcomers to the dual team finals. Raleigh Charter (18-3) will face undefeated East Wilkes (20-0). Raleigh Charter beat Hampstead Topsail 5-1 and East Wilkes got past North Stokes by the identical score in the regional finals.
Jessie Elmore and Brianna Fulp of East Wilkes teamed to win the 1-A doubles crown last weekend.
NORTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
19th Annual Women’s Dual Team Tennis Championships
Burlington Tennis Center, Burlington
Saturday’s Schedule
1-A championship: Raleigh Charter (18-3) vs. East Wilkes (20-0), 9 am
2-A championship: Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (19-4) vs. Salisbury (22-1), 9 am
3-A championship: Wilson Fike (18-0) vs. Asheville T.C. Roberson (21-0), noon
4-A championship: East Chapel Hill (21-1) vs. Charlotte Myers Park (17-0), noon
