Head coach Peter Petrides was pleasantly surprised when the NCHSAA revealed the brackets for the 2022 girls tennis dual team state tournaments. In just its second year as a program, the Seaforth girls earned the No. 1 seed in the east region of the 2A bracket.
The Hawks, who opened the playoffs Wednesday afternoon, enter the postseason at 11-2 on the season and are coming off a fantastic performance at last week’s conference championships that saw them sweep both the singles and doubles titles. In total, Seaforth has won seven straight dual team matches since losing back-to-back meetings with Carrboro in early September.
Thankfully for Seaforth, Carrboro is a 3A school, meaning there’s no chance the Hawks see the Jaguars again this postseason. Petrides did say the two early-season losses were beneficial to his team.
“That kind of let us know what we needed to do to get better, and we’re starting to peak at the right time,” Petrides said. “We just made a big commitment in practices and all the weekend workouts. It’s all been about how we can get better. We can see where we want to be. It’s been great that the girls have bought into a great mindset. We’re ready to go and ready to see what happens.”
Seaforth’s top six players are a mix of two juniors and four sophomores. Leading the charge at No. 1 singles is junior Evelyn Atkins, who has a 7-4 singles record and won the conference singles title last week. Taking home the doubles crown, meanwhile, were sophomores Charlie Ann George and Lillian McFall.
The Hawks have talent all over the lineup, with sophomore Bailey Shadoan boasting an 8-4 record in singles and fellow sophomore Makenzy Lehew going 10-2 in singles and 10-1 in doubles.
“Evelyn has been our rock this season,” Petrides said. “We’ve leaned a lot on her to be our leader this season, and she’s stepped up to the plate. Our No. 2 has been great, Bailey Shadoan. She’s really progressed this season, big time. Last year, she was lower in the lineup and she really made a commitment to get herself better. One other person I wanted to shout out in singles was Mackenzy Lehew. She’s only lost to Carrboro this year and she’s just been crushing people. Her matches have been super quick, done in 45 minutes to an hour and she’s ready to go. She’s been great.”
Last season, Seaforth made it to the second round of the 2A state playoffs before falling to Research Triangle, 9-0. This time around, the Hawks’ toughest competition will likely be Salisbury, which is currently undefeated at 15-0. Salisbury is second in state history with 12 total dual team state championships, though their last came back in 2017.
Regardless of their performance in this year’s state playoffs, the Hawks will have the benefit of returning their entire roster next season, something very few teams ever get to experience. Petrides knows how much of a blessing this is, and the players have bought into the idea of building something bigger than themselves.
“I tell them all the time, ‘This is a multi-year commitment that, if you get on the ground floor, we’re going to be here for a while and we’re going to be able to see our progress together,’” Petrides said. “They’ve all seen how we’ve gotten better as a team, and each player has seen their games get so much better. To be honest, it makes my job so much easier that they already buy in. They want to be here. They listen. It’s great. It’s been very easy to sell to the kids and to the parents.”
Seaforth was one of three Chatham County teams to earn a berth into the state playoffs. The other two were Chatham Central and Chatham Charter, who are both in the 1A bracket.
The Bears earned the No. 2 seed in the 1A east region by going 13-3 during the regular season and finished second behind Seaforth in conference play. Central is led by seniors Olivia Brooks and Ellie Phillips, who have a combined 29-3 record in singles play and a 14-2 record as doubles partners so far this season.
Chatham Central faced winless River Mill Academy in the first round.
Chatham Charter, meanwhile, is the No. 3 seed in the 1A east and played Gates County in the first round Wednesday. The Knights hope to mirror the success of last postseason, when they advanced to the state finals before falling to Mount Airy. Mount Airy is this year’s No. 1 seed in the 1A west at 16-1 overall.
Sports Editor Jeremy Vernon can be reached at jeremy@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @jbo_vernon.