Another stellar season has come to an end for Panther men’s tennis.
After a wildly successful first week of May, in which Franklin upset Central Davidson in the 3A state playoffs and Jack Sgro/Mica Jacobs advanced to the State Individual Tournament in doubles, the team prepared for the next steps of their postseason journey. In losing a 5-4 heartbreak to Atkins and Sgro/Jacobs falling at state, Sammy Gunter’s squad brought their 2023 campaign to an end.
On Tuesday, May 9, Franklin made the long drive to Winston-Salem for a second-round match with fifth-ranked Atkins. After upsetting fourth-ranked Central Davidson in Round 1, the 13th-ranked Panthers arrived in Forsyth County with a full head of steam, where Sgro and Jacobs proved why they’d be playing in the state tournament later that week.
“Another long trip to play the #5 seed Atkins High school in Winston-Salem turned out to be a dogfight,” said Gunter after the match. “At No. 1 Jack was able to pull out a good win by mixing heavy ground strokes with chips and slices to eventually overpower his extremely quick opponent. I was impressed with Jack’s defense on the backhand side, as he was constantly being attacked on that side of the court. He responded with nice, deep slices, lobs and some follow-up volleys at the net.”
Between strong defense to his left and mixing several types of shots on offense, Sgro kept his opponent off-balance for a 6-3, 6-3 win. At No. 2, Jacobs came back from a 6-2 first-set loss to win a narrow 10-8 tiebreak.
“At No. 2 Mica got outplayed from the baseline, and when he approached the net got passed from the Atkins No. 2 player’s forehand,” said Gunter. “But, Mica responded in the second set by serving and volleying more to the backhand side and making his Camel (yes, that’s Atkins’ mascot) opponent run more, creating an open court for Mica’s second volley. Also, his ground game got more consistent with deeper shots to help the cause. Mica stayed out front most of the tiebreaker but it got tied at 8-8, before a couple of errors sealed the match in our favor.”
With critical wins in the Nos. 1 and 2 singles matches, Sgro and Jacobs laid a solid foundation for the Dual Team contest. In the other four singles matches however, only freshman No. 6 player Conner Baldwin came close to victory.
“In a losing effort Conner played well and had a chance to go up 5-4 on his serve, but couldn’t produce enough quality shots against his experienced opponent and eventually lost the set 4-6,” said Gunter.
Down 4-2 entering doubles play, Franklin needed all three remaining matches to claim victory in the Dual Team contest. While they did win earn wins at Nos. 1 and 3, they were unable to erase the Camels’ lead.
“In doubles Jack S/Mica continued to roll, as they [moved] better and [played] smarter shots to pick apart the Atkins duo,” said Gunter of the No. 1 pair. “You could see the momentum and confidence continue to grow from their good results at regionals. At No. 3 doubles Orrin [Mynes]/Will [Sinclair] were more consistent from the ground and at the net to eventually pull away to seal the victory at 8-6.”
After their narrow 5-4 loss to Atkins, Sgro and Jacobs had little time to dwell on the state playoff result, traveling to the Burlington Tennis Center May 12 for the 3A State Individual Championship. As the Far West Region’s No. 3 seed after placing third in the 3A West Regional, the duo received a difficult first-round draw, falling to a talented pair from Carrboro near Chapel Hill.
“Yesterday we got waxed 6-0, 6-1 by the No. 2 Carrboro duo who, are both seniors,” said Gunter. “We had to wait an hour after warming up waiting for a court to pop open. Jack and Mica didn’t play badly as there were some bang-bang volley exchanges at the net, but the other team seemed to win most of them. We also had trouble handling their hard and deep return-of-serves, which put us on the defensive immediately. The biggest difference was that we could not return their lefty server, who continued to jam us with the big slice into the body which made it difficult to hit a clean response or even keep the ball in play.”
With Sgro and Jacobs falling to the Carrboro pair, the Panthers ended another successful season for the program. With the bulk of the team’s roster just now finishing their sophomore years, Gunter said Franklin’s future is bright, led by its State Championship pair.
“Jack and Mica, though disappointed in the outcome, are already making plans this summer to close the gap to reach the next level,” he said. “It was a good learning experience and the guys certainly had earned the right to be there as one of the top 16 doubles teams in the state 3A division.”