Four contests into the season, Panther women’s tennis has lost just one match.
Having opened their season with successful trips to East Henderson (9-0) and Tuscola (8-1), on the week of Aug. 26 Franklin returned to the Macon County Rec Park for two more Mountain Seven Conference contests. In 9-0 routs of Pisgah and North Henderson, Heather Bell’s team improved their record to 4-0.
On Monday, Aug. 26 the team completed their first day of school and took the short drive to the rec park for their home opener. In a rematch of two 9-0 wins over Pisgah last fall, the Panthers took care of business once again, claiming all six singles matches in straight sets. No Black Bear took more than three games from their Panther opponents, with Franklin’s lineup (#1 Kate Phillips, #2 Abigail Angel, #3 Maci Stork, #4 Caroline Deal, #5 Clara Stork, #6 Marlee Barnes) remaining unchanged from the previous week.
In doubles Phillips and Maci Stork won the #1 match eight games to two, while Angel/Deal claimed the #2 match 8-4. At #3 Barnes and Clara Stork blanked their opponents 8-0 to complete the 9-0 sweep.
Two nights later the team returned to the rec park for a sweltering match with North Henderson. Having beaten North 9-0 and 8-0 last fall, Franklin outclassed the Knights once again with another lopsided win. Much like versus Pisgah, no Panther surrendered more than three games in singles, with Franklin’s top five dropping just a single game or less. In doubles the same three pairs won 8-2, 8-1 and 8-0, respectively.
Coming off the most successful two-year run in program history, including two unbeaten regular seasons, two trips to the 3A Dual Team State Semifinals and two 3A West Individual Doubles titles, this year’s team has high hopes for 2024. Despite losing former seniors Laura Holland, Lydia Holland and Logan Guynn to graduation in June, Phillips said this year’s new-look team shouldn’t skip a beat.
“What’s different is that we have a lot of new girls – not new to tennis, but new to our team,” Phillips said of the team’s seven freshmen. “It makes the top six want to try harder because we now have people that are looking up to us, but also they’re really good, so it’s fun. What hasn’t changed is I think we’re still pretty deep – our top six are still pretty solid, and we all get along, which is good. We still have the same coaches; they’re 10 out of 10.”
With the same coaching staff (Bell and assistants Andrea Bosio and Rick Blanton) and top three players (Phillips, Angel and Maci Stork) as last year, Franklin should again boast one of the 3A West’s top teams. Perhaps in part to their recent run of incredible success, Phillips said they should continue refining young players for years to come.
“It makes me happy because I know that we’re still gonna have a strong team four years down the road, because we have such good girls – their attitude, their skill, their effort – it’s amazing,” she said. “We each kind of have a person we’re closer to with the younger girls, but in general we all kind of stick together, which is nice. … [We’ve been doing] lots and lots of running and cardio, which is good for team bonding. That and drills – we’ve all been working together. She’s [Bell has] done a lot of like putting a new girl with a senior girl and doing stuff so we can integrate and show them, and sometimes they show us stuff. We do a lot of that intermixing.”