Tennis team wins CPC crown
Published 10:22 am Thursday, October 20, 2016
One week after bagging its fifth regular-season championship in the program’s 42-year history, Davie’s tennis team captured the conference tournament for the third time in the 31 years it has been a member of the Central Piedmont Conference.
The tournament was held Oct. 11 at South Davie Middle.
The War Eagles, who went 14-0 and 10-0 in the CPC in the regular season, scored 30 points to easily outdistance Reagan (16), Reynolds (14), Mt. Tabor (10), North Davidson (4) and West Forsyth (3).
They are back-to-back champions in the CPC Tournament. Besides 2015 and 2016, their other CPC tournament title came in 2007.
Players who advanced to the semifinals qualified for the Midwest Regional, which will be held Oct. 21-22 at Grimsley. Laura Becker and Sierra Foster earned berths in singles, while the Ngo sisters (Jennifer and Amanda) advanced in doubles.
How do you find the words to describe how impressive Becker has been this season? The immensely talented sophomore captured the singles championship while outscoring three opponents 32-2. After finishing second in the tournament in 2015, she ran her record to 17-0. No other War Eagle has won the singles championship this century. She might be Davie’s first CPC singles champion ever.
After receiving a bye, she beat West Forsyth’s Jessika Barber 10-0 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she beat North Davidson’s Maxfield 10-0. In the championship match, she beat Reynolds’ Jamie Christie 6-1, 6-1.
Becker’s two-year record is a resounding 36-5.
“We felt like it was going to be a better conference tournament for her because she was feeling well. Last year she was sick during the conference tournament and still managed to make the finals,” coach John Bullins said. “This year she was feeling 100 percent and played like it. I mean, she was on target.”
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The Ngo sisters, who won the doubles championship in 2015, could not repeat – but the path they navigated just to reach the finals was something to be proud of.
Seeded fifth, senior Jennifer and sophomore Amanda won 10-8 over Reagan in the first round. In the quarterfinals, they found themselves behind 3-0. They declined an invitation to roll over, winning 10 of 14 games to pull out a 10-7 decision over the fourth-seeded team. In the semifinals, they knocked off the No. 2 seed (Tabor’s Sarah Wells Luke/Laura Collins) by a score of 10-8. In the championship, they lost 6-4, 6-3 to Reagan’s Caroline Richter/Katie Schoulda.
The Ngo sisters are 6-5 after going 10-2 in 2015.
“They both were very tired (during the championship),” Bullins said. “They’re not going to share that willingly because they want to fight you tooth and nail all the way. But you could tell it had been a long day for them. At the end of the tournament, both were pretty exhausted. But in my opinion, they’re winners. The Ngo sisters always find a way to be in the mix.”
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Foster, a sophomore who was seeded fourth, received a bye before rolling to a 10-3 victory in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she lost 10-0 to Christie of Reynolds.
“(Christie) is strong, let me tell you,” Bullins said. “She plays No. 1 for Reynolds. She is a very strong player, but Sierra is going to see her again and she’ll be ready.”
In the third-fourth consolation match, Foster lost 6-3, 6-2 to Maxfield, the No. 1 player from North Davidson.
“That showed that Sierra is definitely the best No. 2 player in our conference,” Bullins said. “Sierra had an opportunity to make regionals and she took advantage of it. She got as much out of it as she could. She’s going to battle and strive to achieve as much as possible.”
Foster, who earned third place last year, has a 12-5 record. She is 26-10 in two years.
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Seniors Annie Kinder and Claire Myers were denied a regional berth as they split two matches. They opened with a 10-5 win over West Forsyth, but they lost 10-2 to Tabor in the quarterfinals. It was their first loss in five matches together.
“They played hard also,” Bullins said. “Those two are battlers all the way. The one point that they got for us … When you’re in a tournament, you never know when you need that one point. It could very well be the one point that puts us over the top.”