Panther women’s tennis has advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.
After an extremely successful regular season that saw Heather Bell’s team go 11-2, officials from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association ranked the Panthers one of the 32 best teams in the state’s 3A classification, earning them a berth in the 3A State Championship tournament.
On Wednesday, Oct. 20, the Panthers took the nearly four-hour drive to Thomasville, near Winston-Salem, for a first-round matchup with the Ledford Panthers. After accruing a 9-1 record in the Mid-Piedmont Conference, Ledford was ranked at No. 6 in the tournament seeding process and was favored on paper against No. 11 Franklin.
Despite Ledford’s high ranking however, Franklin earned a convincing 6-3 victory. The Panthers moved on to the tournament’s second round, in which they hosted 14th-ranked King’s Mountain at the Macon County Recreation Department Oct. 26. The Press will report on the match’s results in the Nov. 3 edition.
In addition to the dual team state playoffs, Franklin was also represented in both singles and doubles’ competition at the 3A West Regional individual tournament. After earning first place in the Mountain 7 Conference singles tournament Oct. 14, standout junior Alyssa Smith advanced to the tournament’s second round before losing. Top doubles pair Kate Phillips and Carmen Sgro also competed following their third-place finish in the M7 tournament but did not advance.