Panther women’s tennis will be well-represented at regionals.
On Tuesday, Oct. 7, the team traveled to Western Carolina University for the 5A West Pre-Regional, battling players from six other squads to advance. There all six Panthers punched their tickets to Hickory, where they’ll seek State Championship berths this weekend.
Franklin’s top four players entered the pre-regional doubles bracket, including freshman Eva Holland, junior Olivia Rinker and seniors Marlee Barnes and Clara Stork. As two of the tournament’s higher-seeded pairs by record, Franklin advanced straight to the playoff round, awaiting results of pre-tournament qualifiers between its lowest-seeded pairs to determine their playoff opponents.
Having defeated a pair from Smoky Mountain 8-3, a pair from Erwin advanced to face Barnes and Stork, but were dispatched by Franklin’s seniors 6-0, 6-1. Similarly, Rinker and Holland drew a pair from North Henderson, and blanked their opponents 6-0, 6-0.
In singles, sophomores Elsie Phillips and Carah Reynolds tried their hands for Franklin, both drawing playoff opponents from rival Smoky. There Reynolds defeated Lucy Brown 6-1, 6-1, while Phillips dispatched Mallorie Donley 6-2, 6-1.
Each having won their playoff matches, all six Panthers finished among the top seven players/pairs, advancing to the 5A West Regional at Hickory City Park Oct. 17-18. As they’ll receive random draws at Regionals, there was no need to decide a pre-regional winner.
The pre-regional format comes as a change to the state’s individual playoffs, following the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s quadrennial realignment earlier this year.
In past years, singles players and doubles pairs wishing to compete at the regional level needed strong finishes in their conference tournaments to advance, with each conference allotted a certain number of berths based on size. Under the new system, with the prevalence of split-classification conferences across the state, the NCHSAA has moved from its former conference tournament format to a system of eight “Pre-Regionals” per classification across the state.
As the classification’s westernmost conference, Franklin and its 5A Mountain Eight rivals (Smoky, North Henderson and West Henderson) will now join Enka, Erwin and North Buncombe in the 5A West Pool B Pre-Regional. With one less team than Pool A, Pool B is allotted seven of the region’s 16 berths. The realignment also lengthened players’ paths to advance out of regionals, halving the number of total State Tournament berths from 16 to eight.
“I’m very excited for regionals. I played singles last year and it was rough, but this year the new format’s a lot easier to get to regionals because you only play one match and you’re there,” said Stork after leaving the court. “Last year I played three matches to get to Regionals, so the format’s really different, but I think it’s good. We have our whole top six going to Regionals now, so it’s very exciting, and I’m very excited to play doubles this year.”
Having advanced to last year’s regional as Franklin’s #5 player, Stork has taken on an expanded role for the Panthers this fall, joining Barnes as the team’s top talents and only seniors. In addition to seeking Franklin’s third regional doubles title in four years, the pair has tried to take their younger teammates under their wings.
“We’re team captains this year, so it’s very fun,” said Stork. “We’re hosting all the team gatherings and team bonding events, and we’ve grown closer with a bunch of them as seniors. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is the last year that I’ll see all of them,’ so you’ve got to get close before you move on. We had Senior Night [before Franklin’s regular-season finale versus West Oct. 1]; it was really fun.”
Upon returning home from WCU, Franklin turned their attention to the 5A dual team playoffs. As the 22nd-ranked team out of 57 in the classification, the Panthers hosted East Rowan in Round 1 after press time Oct. 13. Ahead of that match, Stork expressed confidence in herself and her teammates.
“I think we’re gonna do good,” she said. “We’re ranked pretty high, and [with] the teams we’re facing I think we’re going to do pretty good.”