The Rockbridge County High School girls tennis team concluded the regular season winless, suffering an 8-1 home loss to Valley District rival Rocktown last Wednesday evening at the Lexington Country Club courts.
The Wildcats ended the team portion of their season with an overall record of 0-13, going 0-12 in the district.
Rocktown, which had beaten the Wildcats 6-0 on April 25 in Harrisonburg, in a match shortened by a thunderstorm, won all three doubles contests last Wednesday and claimed five of the six singles matches.
The lone winner for the Wildcats was senior Julia Newhall, who pulled out a 9-7 victory over Rocktown’s Leslie Yang at No. 2 singles, avenging an 8-1 loss on April 25.
The Wildcats also had close singles matches at No. 4 and No. 6. At No. 4, RC junior Ava Crocker came up short 8-6 against Evelyn Yang. At No. 6, RC sophomore Diya Gandhi fell to Taylor Moore 8-6.
Proud of his players who endured tight contests, RC head coach Mark Sholes said, “I was very happy how these ladies played because they fought hard and didn’t give up.”
Playing for the first time together at No. 3 doubles were senior Keely Newman and sophomore Jade Newhall, coming up short 8-5 against Moore and Eleanor Troxell.
The Wildcats were scheduled to take on local rival Parry McCluer on Friday at the Southern Virginia University courts, but that match was canceled due to a thunderstorm, as was PM’s home match against Pioneer District rival Bath County, scheduled for Monday of last week.
On Monday, the PM girls (6-3 overall, 2-1 district) were scheduled to face Narrows in a match to determine first place in the Pioneer District, after the two teams split a pair of 5-4 contests during the regular season. For RC, junior Corinna Allen was scheduled to play in the Valley District singles tournament on Monday at East Rockingham High School in Elkton before teaming up with Julia Newhall for the district doubles tournament at the same location yesterday.
For postseason updates, visit www.thenews-gazette.com.
Rocktown 8, RC 1
SINGLES – Molly Wells (R) d. Corinna Allen (RC) 8-1; Julia Newhall (RC) d. Leslie Yang (R) 9-7; Abigail Kyle (R) d. Eleanor Goodhart (RC) 8-2; Evelyn Yang (R) d. Ava Crocker (RC) 9-7; Eleanor Troxell (R) d. Campbell Bond (RC) 8-2; Taylor Moore (R) d. Diya Gandhi (RC) 8-6.
DOUBLES – Wells and Kyle (R) d. Allen and Julia Newhall (RC) 8-5; L. Yang and E. Yang (R) d. Goodhart and Crocker (RC) 9-7; Troxell and Moore (R) d. Keely Newman and Jade Newhall (RC) 8-5.
