CARY — There the rain-soaked courts sat as a group of spectators waited patiently, watching with intent as larger-than-life squeegees attempted to soak up the puddles that prevented the start of the NCHSAA 1A Women’s Tennis Individual State Championships last Friday.
The tournament, set to start at 9 a.m. at Cary Tennis Park, wouldn’t get under way until after 11:30 a.m. as just a couple of courts became available, finally dry thanks to the industrial squeegees, sunlight and fans desperately working to recreate evaporation.
While the rain was a nuisance for players, coaches and fans alike — delaying the start of the tournament and even postponing the day’s final match as storms rolled through — the clouds in the sky weren’t indicative of the day itself.
After all, it was a day full of excitement, nervousness and pride for Chathamites, as their county had the most individual state qualifiers in the 1A classification (four), including two duos each from Chatham Central and Chatham Charter.
The Bears’ doubles qualifiers were the duos of juniors Livvy Brooks & Ellie Phillips, the 1A East regional doubles champions, and sophomore Rachel Albright & junior Jaylee Williams.
The Knights’ doubles qualifiers were the duos of sophomore Elphie Spillman & senior Emery Eldridge and seniors Ashlyn Hart & Lorelei Byrd.
In the tournament itself, Brooks/Phillips made it all the way to the state title match, where they finished as the runners-up to the dominant pairing from Mount Airy, junior Audrey Marion & sophomore Ella Brant, who knocked them out by way of a 6-1, 6-2 score.
Marion/Brant also eliminated two other Chatham duos — Chatham Central’s Albright/Williams in the first round (6-1, 6-1) and Chatham Charter’s Hart/Byrd in the second round (6-4, 6-4) — en route to winning the 1A doubles state championship.
Brooks/Phillips entered the tournament with a 13-1 overall record as the Bears’ top doubles pairing, claiming the top seed in the 1A East after blowing through the 1A East Regionals — defeating both Eldridge/Spillman (6-1, 6-3) and Hart/Byrd (6-0, 6-1) — a week earlier.
And despite the duo’s talent level and resume, it didn’t take long before realizing just how difficult it’d be to replicate that success.
After waiting over four hours to start their first match, Brooks/Phillips got off to an inconsistent start, taking a 3-0 lead in the first set before relinquishing it and barely holding on to a 6-5 advantage with Christ the King’s Nicole Castillo & Grace Sides on their tail.
Castillo/Sides would even the set after a 12th-game victory, tying it at 6 all, but in the heated tiebreaker, Brooks returned a deep ball that hit just inside the Crusaders’ zone and over their heads, sealing the 7-6 set win for the Bears’ duo.
However, in the second set, Brooks/Phillips’ momentum failed to carry over from the first as they lost it in shocking fashion, 1-6, without putting up much of a fight.
And in the third and final set, the Bears found themselves in a 1-3 hole and on the brink of being upset.
But even when nerves were high in Chatham Central’s corner, the Bears just wouldn’t stay down as Phillips sliced a hit down the left side and out of the Crusaders’ reach, causing the Bears’ crowd to erupt as they came one step closer to tying it.
Phillips made a similar play later in the set to tie it at 4 apiece as Brooks gave her yet another look of awe, tapping her racquet as if to say, “We’ve got this.”
And they, in fact, had it, winning the next two games to take the third set, 6-4, and the match (7-6, 1-6, 6-4).
“When they would get over the mental block and play the tennis that they have been working for and training for so hard, they were amazing,” Heather Brooks, Chatham Central’s head tennis coach, said. “They started off both matches on Friday a little slow. I think they were really nervous even though they’d never tell us that. ... But once they started playing to win and not to lose, that’s when they started playing their tennis.”
In the second round, Brooks/Phillips were down, 1-4, in the first set against East Wilkes’ Tristen Blevins & Kristie Brown — who defeated the Knights’ Spillman/Eldridge in the first round (6-3, 6-4) — when the storm clouds rolled in and, because the Cary Tennis Center had no available indoor courts, forced the postponement of the match until Saturday.
It was a decision that only set to benefit the Bears, giving them an overnight breather after their marathon first-round match.
Brooks/Phillips went on to lose the first set on Saturday, 2-6, before storming back to win the next two (7-5, 6-3) and punch their ticket to the title match, where they’d eventually lose to the Marion/Brant powerhouse.
Despite the loss in the championship match, Brooks/Phillips are still just juniors with a wildly successful first season as the Bears’ No. 1 duo, giving their moms and coaches, Heather Brooks (head coach) and Wendy Phillips (assistant coach) plenty to be excited about for the future.
“I think this team is only going to do bigger things next year,” Brooks said. “We had the state runners-up in individual doubles and they’ve made a goal to be in the same place next year and win.”
“They’re all hungry right now, they’re practicing on their own time and getting together,” added Wendy Phillips, the Bears’ assistant coach. “I feel like these girls have kind of given themselves an introduction to the East. ... I don’t think we’ll have a problem getting seeded now.”
Chatham Charter’s doubles team of Hart/Byrd was the only other Chatham duo to win their first-round match, downing Mount Airy’s Lily Morris & Charlotte Hauser (6-4, 6-4), in a hard-fought victory.
“In the first match, they played really well together, they knew what each other was doing,” said Kelly Eldridge, Chatham Charter’s head coach, after the tournament on Friday. “They would just move together really well and kind of anticipate what the other was doing. … (In the second round), the team was just really solid and had some really great shots. I’m still super proud of them.”
Aside from the 1A tournament Seaforth also had a player competing in the 2A singles bracket at Ting Park in Holly Springs, where sophomore Evelyn Atkins lost in the first round (4-6, 6-4, 1-6) to John A. Holmes’ Ellie Spear.
Competing as a team
While the Individual State Championships stole the show this past weekend, Monday was the continuation of the NCHSAA Dual-Team Playoffs, where three Chatham teams competed for a shot at the state semifinals.
No. 9 Seaforth, in its first season as a program, took the court against No. 13 Research Triangle in the 2A bracket, dropping the match, 9-0.
On the 1A side of things, No. 1 Chatham Central and No. 5 Chatham Charter duked it out in a showdown for the county, where the Knights upset the Bears in fairly dominant fashion, 6-3, to advance to the 1A East Dual-Team Regional.
Winning their singles matches for the Knights were Spillman (7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 0-0 (10-7)), Byrd (6-1, 6-0), junior Rebecca Brookshire (6-1, 6-1) and senior Emily Stecher (6-0, 6-0), while the duos of Byrd/Hart (8-5) and Brookshire/Stecher (8-1) winning their doubles matches.
The Bears got singles wins from Phillips (7-6 (9-7), 6-1) and sophomore Rachel Albright (4-6, 6-0, 0-0 (10-5)), while Brooks/Phillips won their doubles match (8-6).
Over the last few years, the Bears and Knights have developed a relationship as a couple of the top tennis programs in the county, often playing each other multiple times per season in friendly, but competitive, matches.
On Friday, Kelly Eldridge said in a match of this caliber, all friendships would have to take a back seat.
“It’s hard just because we’ve played them twice (this season),” Eldridge said ahead of the contest with the Bears. “But we’ve just got to treat it like a playoff game. Try to take the personal out of it while we’re playing and see if we can swing one more win. … We want to have fun, we want to compete, but we want to win at the end of the day.”
And with a team overflowing with seniors, it’s clear the Knights are hungry to capture glory before they have to shift around nearly their entire lineup next season.
“(The seniors) have brought experience, definitely,” Eldridge said. “They brought the camaraderie within the team, telling each other what they need to do, but in a team spirit kind of way because they want each other to win and succeed and get better.”
The Knights will face off against the third-seeded Voyager Academy Vikings in the 1A Regional on Wednesday.
Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.