Union Pines tennis tops Lady Cavs

John Cate, The Sanford Herald, N.C.
·2 min read

Oct. 6—Union Pines tennis hosted Southern Lee Tuesday evening in an important Sandhills Atheltic Conference match and nailed down the top 3A playoff spot in the SAC with a 6-3 victory over the Lady Cavaliers.

The Lady Vikings (11-1, 10-1 SAC) can win a share of the overall conference title if they can beat Pinecrest (12-2, 11-0) in the regular-season finale today at home, but regardless of the outcome of that match, Union Pines will be treated as a conference champion for playoff purposes.

Southern Lee (8-6, 7-4) could have potentially tied the Lady Vikings for the spot with a victory. The Lady Cavaliers were competitive when the teams met the first time and were again in the rematch, but came up short in some close matches. The meet 4-2 in Union Pines' favor after singles and they won two of three very competitive doubles matches.

The match started off well for Union Pines, as top seed Tyne Ross beat Souther's Kate Jackson 8-0, and No. 3 seed Abby Robertson defeated Evie Eller 8-1. However, the rest of them were dogfights. No. 2 Lady Viking Lily Slyman downed Kambell Beasley 8-4, but Southern got on the board when Carrie Bryan stopped Madelyn Ragsdale 8-5. The Lady Cavaliers had a chance to tie the match going to the doubles, but Union Pines' Saeda Yoxtheimer scored an 8-5 win over Yareli Lopez at No. 6, and Southern's Blair Young could only stave off a team loss when she beat Kinsley Creel 8-6 at No. 5.

Southern Lee needed to sweep the doubles to win the match, and Ross and Slyman made sure that didn't happen when they downed Jackson and Beasley 8-2 at No. 1 doubles. Eller and Bryan did beat Robertson and Ragsdale 8-5, but Creel-Yoxtheimer defeated Young and Lily McLeod 8-4 to end it.

Southern Lee will end its regular season by hosting Lee County on Thursday.

Chatham Central tops Southern

Playoff-bound Chatham Central improved to 12-3 on the season Tuesday evening by sweeping the Lady Cavaliers in the second match of the season between the two schools.

Bryan and Lopez made their singles matches close, and their efforts also made the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles close, but the Lady Bears were able to win them all.

In singles, Olivia Brooks downed Jackson 8-2, Ellie Phillips beat Beasley 8-0, Rachel Albright defeated Eller 8-3, Jaylee Williams edged Bryan 8-6, Lauren Caviness beat Young 8-3, and Emma Townsend topped Lopez 8-5.

In doubles, Brooks-Phillips beat Jackson-Beasley 8-1, while the No. 2 doubles saw Albright-Williams top Eller-Bryan 8-5, and Caviness-Townsend defeat Young-Lopez 8-6.