Oct. 22—The Pisgah girls tennis team went on the road Monday evening for a first-round playoff match-up.
The No. 24-seeded Bears traveled to Monroe to take on No. 9-seeded Piedmont, winning the match 5-3-1.
“We broke some hearts last night as a 24 beating a nine,” Pisgah coach Harold Shepard said.
After the singles matches, the Bears led 4-2.
Seniors Kennedy Conard and Lily Martinez and sophomore Holly Henderson each won their singles matches in straight sets.
Freshman Emma Henson lost the opening set of her match 7-5 before battling back to win both the second set and the tiebreaker.
Junior Ella Tiller and senior Anna Shepard each lost their singles matches in tight battles.
“My girls feel pretty confident about what they can do,” Shepard said. “They all played very well.”
In the doubles, Shepard and Tiller lost in the No. 1 spot. Conard and Martinez won in the No. 2 slot in a tiebreaker.
The win for the seniors clinched the Pisgah win. The final match featuring Henson and Henderson was tied in a tiebreaker set as it became too dark to continue to play, resulting in that match finishing as a draw.
“The girls expected to win,” Shepard said. “It wasn’t a matter of what Piedmont was or was not. They came in with an expectation. The mood was good going down. When they went in, they were excited.”
For the three-hour trip, the team took a charter bus — something the players were excited about. They also stopped for lunch on the way down and dinner on the way back.
“We do it up right as far as that’s concerned with our playoff teams,” Shepard said. “They were happy, but not so crazy that they didn’t take care of business once they got there.”
Now the Bears look ahead to the second round of state on Wednesday. They’ll get a much shorter trip this time around, heading over the county line to face No. 8-seeded North Buncombe, who won their opening-round match-up with No. 25 St. Stephens 6-3.
“They’re already ready for practice,” Shepard said. “We’re trying to prepare for what we’ve got next. They’re geared up and ready for it and looking on to the next one. We’re going to try to win it. If we can fight and stay in it, the results will speak for themselves.”
