Nine matches in, Panther tennis remains undefeated.
After sweeping the first half of their Mountain Seven Conference schedule, on the week of Sept. 18 Franklin set off on its second leg. In an M7C win at Tuscola and a nonconference victory over Rabun Gap, Heather Bell’s team improved to 9-0 with just five contests left this regular season.
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the Panthers traveled to Waynesville for their second and final Mountain Seven matchup with Tuscola. In a rematch of Franklin’s 9-0 blowout win in their season opener, Tuscola looked sharp in the top singles spot, narrowly defeating junior Kate Phillips 6-2, 7-5. In the No. 2 match, junior Abigail Angel played the match of the day for the Panthers, winning the first set 6-4 and a razor-thin second set 6-6 (7-3).
At No. 3, junior Maci Stork shut out her opponent 6-0, 6-0, while senior Laura Holland prevailed in a 6-1, 6-0 rout. At No. 5, senior Logan Guynn also blanked her opponent 6-0, 6-0, while senior Lydia Holland earned Franklin’s final singles match 6-0, 6-1.
Despite the contest having been decided with Franklin up five matches to one, the rivals nevertheless played its three doubles matches for extra practice. At No. 1, Phillips and Angel forced their opponents into an 8-7 tiebreak, but lost the final game for a narrow 9-7 defeat. Tuscola had no such luck in the other two matches however, falling 8-1 to Guynn and Stork at No. 2 and 8-0 to the Holland sisters at No. 3.
After dispatching Tuscola, the next day the team returned to Franklin, for a non-conference matchup with the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee school. There, Phillips played the match of the day for the Panthers, beating her opponent narrowly 7-5, 6-4.
At No. 2, Angel won 6-3, 6-1, while both Stork and Laura Holland blanked their opponents 6-0, 6-0. At No. 5, Guynn cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win, while Lydia Holland completed the sweep 6-2, 6-1.
In doubles, Phillips and Angel took the No. 1 match 8-4, while Guynn and Stork claimed the No. 2 match 8-2. The Holland sisters won 8-0 to complete the 9-0 dual team shutout.
At 9-0 overall and 8-0 in the Mountain Seven, Franklin ended the week five contests away from an undefeated season. As the team seeks to return to the 3A West Semifinals, Angel says a long year of work is starting to pay off.
“We have worked so hard this season, and during the summer we did summer workouts every single day,” she explained. “I feel like we’ve all improved so much. We’ve done so great this year, and it just feels really good to keep improving. … We encourage each other and stay positive all the time, so [it’s] just staying positive and not getting down on ourselves.”