Aug. 29—Southern Lee tennis took its first loss of the 2024 season Tuesday evening in a match against three-time defending Sandhills Athletic Conference champion Pinecrest, falling 7-2 on the Southern courts.
The Lady Cavaliers (2-1, 2-1 SAC) earned both of their team points thanks to top-seed Genesis Gonzalez, who prevailed at No. 1 singles over the Lady Patriots’ Livia Pratt in an 8-0 whitewash, and then teamed up with Logan Hickman for an 8-6 win at No. 1 doubles against Pratt and Dylon McRae. Gonzalez now has a 3-0 record in both singles and doubles for the season, and has lost just one game in singles.
There were a few other competitive matches in the meet. At No. 2 singles, McRae edged Hickman 8-4, and at No. 6 singles, Pinecrest’s Molly Grafenberg scored an 8-5 win against Gina DeCerbo. The Lady Patriots won the middle of the order matches. Maddy Mathis beat Brooke Burrus 8-1, Pearl Hage downed Quillen Petrarca 8-1, and Brooke Greenblatt defeated Zofia Pogorzelska 8-0.
In the other two doubles matches, Pinecrest scored 8-0 wins behind Matthis-Hage over Burrus-Petrarca, and Greenblatt-Graffenberg over Pogorzelska-DeCerbo.
Southern is off for a week before hosting Union Pines on Sept. 5.
