The Russellville High School varsity girls’ tennis team finished 11th out of 18 teams at the AHSAA Class 4A-5A state championship tournament in Mobile last week. The Lady Golden Tigers ended their tournament with 12 team points, tied with Sipsey Valley.
Sardis won the state title with 65 points and Deshler, who beat out Russellville for the top spot in Section 8, received the red map trophy with 42 points.
“You know, the state tournament is about luck as much as anything else. It’s a blind draw so a lot of it is about luck with who you draw in that first round,” Russellville head coach Charlotte Dollar told the Franklin Free Press following the Lady Golden Tigers’ runner-up finish in the Section 8 tournament.
“These girls are definitely very capable of competing,” Dollar said of her team, “but it’s all about who you draw when you get down there.”
Lakin Derrick and Lily Cate Pace, Kennley Francisco and Josie Burcham, and Maria Gonzalez and Nelly Juarez were the three teams that competed in doubles play for RHS.
Gonzalez and Juarez advanced the farthest of the three, advancing all the way to the semifinals of flight three before being eliminated 6-4, 6-2 by Providence Christian’s Madelyn Hall and Haisten Grace Price.
Derrick and Pace advanced to round three before Demopolis knocked them out. Francisco and Burcham fell in the opening round to Sardis’ Taylor Johnson and Jesa Leigh Bonds, who went on to win the doubles title in that bracket.
The draw did not seem to go in Russellville’s favor in singles competition as none of the Lady Golden Tigers advanced past their opening match. Sophomore Ella Copeland appeared to be the closest to advancing after a narrow 7-6 defeat to the Donoho School’s Claire Tollison in the first set of round one. Copeland dropped the second set to the eventual singles state runner-up 6-3.
Pace fell to Sipsey Valley’s Morgan Dockery 6-2, 6-1; Derrick lost to Sardis’ Jayden Johnson 6-2, 6-1; and Burcham was defeated by Briarwood’s Emma Jahraus, who later advanced to the title match, 6-1, 6-0. Francisco was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Saint James’ Haley Hust, and Gonzalez dropped the opening round to Hust’s teammate Olivia Willis, an eventual singles champion, 6-0, 6-0.
Commenting on this story has been disabled.
