TENNIS: West Laurens teams moving on; Dublin, East Laurens met with defeat in first round

West Laurens tennis teams followed up last week’s triumphant trip to Macon for the region 4-AAA tournament with wins in their state playoff debuts Wednesday at home. 

The Raiders, paired with Adairsville on both sides, swept the back-to-back matches to punch their ticket to the second round, where each will return to the court early next week. 

Neighboring Dublin and East Laurens were also doubly represented in the early-round action of the High A state tournament this week, but their teams would each be knocked out shy of a win to advance. 

Dublin’s girls were swept 3-0 by No. 1 overall seed Brantley County Tuesday in Nahunta. 

The Irish boys were interrupted by rain as they opened playoff action at 10th-seeded Vidalia on Wednesday. Upon returning to complete the match Thursday, they’d collect a point by forfeit thanks to a scratch for Vidalia at first doubles, where Brandon Chatman and Chase Colbert were able to chalk up their lone win. But the Indians closed out three of the remaining four lines in straight sets, with Stone Smith surviving a battle to win his second at No. 3 singles for Vidalia’s clinching point. 

“We had a good season,” said Dublin head coach J.D. Moran. 

The 15th seeded East Laurens girls held down home court for their match against Bacon County Wednesday evening, and were in the thick of a couple competitive singles matches that were anybody’s ballgame. 

But the Red Raiders were able to sweep their way to straight-set wins on both doubles courts, and at No. 3 singles, before either of those two battles could get very far into a second set. 

Allison Williams rallied from the verge of defeat, down 5-4, to win a back-and-forth first set in a tiebreak on the lead court, and had a 1-0 lead only a game into the second when the match was called. Maggie Foskey was in a similar boat, down a set but virtually even early in the second when the Lady Falcons’ chances at a come-from-behind effort were ruled out. 

The Falcon boys, who drew the inverse seeding as an 18 traveling to take on the 15, fell 5-0 to Banks County playing Thursday afternoon at a tennis facility in Gainesville. 

Back on the Westside, it was a 3-0 count in both of Wednesday’s matches against the Tigers. 

The seventh-seeded Raider girls looked to Haedyn Skinner – a 6-0, 6-1 winner over Stella Rood at No. 2 doubles – for their first mark in the win column. Hers was followed swiftly by a pair on the doubles courts, coming first from Makayla Hughes and Hannah Wells, by counts of 6-1 and 6-2 over Sophie Hovatter and Gio Marroquin, and moments later by Anna O’Neal and Laney Shields, shaking off a second-set challenge from Allison Potter and Caroline O’Kelley to prevail 6-2, 6-4. 

West Laurens’ remaining singles matches were dogfights that saw Adairsville’s Adysen Garvey and Camdyn Collin take first sets 6-4 respectively against the Lady Raiders’ No. 1 Hunter Laughlin and No. 3 Brooke Collins. The former trailed 4-3, while the latter was up 5-4, in an effort to force a third when the match concluded. 

The Westside boys, working from the No. 5 overall berth in the bracket, cruised to the wins on both doubles courts and at No. 3 singles that were needed to wrap up their victory. 

Charlie Barfield swept 12 straight games against Becket Collin to collect a first of the day. The teams of Matthew Gibbs and Jax Crawford (defeating Caleb Black and Canyon East), alongside Cullen Christian and Cam Spires (who topped Jaylin Simpson and Grayson McKinney), both posted 6-1 sets across the board in one-sided doubles matches. 

The Raiders were mostly well on their way to similar outcomes on both remaining singles courts, where Aiden Payne and A’ville’s Braden Mathis were mid-tiebreak after a 6-6 first set deadlock, and Kenneth Reyes led Caleb Sorrell a set (6-2) and two games to none. 

West Laurens teams will advance to host a second set of opponents making four-hour drives from North Georgia for second-round matchups. The girls host Pickens Monday afternoon, and the boys Heritage of Ringgold on Tuesday. 

Both Raider teams, a week earlier, extended their long-running region title streaks with a pair of victories each at the 4-AAA tournament in Macon. 

West’s girls won their 16th in a row by defeating Aquinas 3-0 in the semifinals, and outlasting Hephzibah 3-2 in the finals. The boys avenged respective regular-season losses to Hephzibah and Aquinas in the semis and finals to win their 16th in 18 years.