TENNIS: Polk avoids doubles repeat, tops Bishop McGuinness

Published 1:56 pm Friday, October 27, 2023

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Wednesday afternoon began to have a familiar feel for Polk County’s girls tennis team.

Uncomfortably familiar for Wolverine head coach Tracy Becker.

A day after Polk County rallied for a 5-4 playoff win over Elkin, the Wolverines found themselves on the opposite side of the same situation – 4-2 lead after singles, visiting Bishop McGuinness leading all three doubles matches.

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

But Polk’s No. 2 team of Bella Sheffron and Cate Brown turned discomfort into delight, taking an 8-4 victory to secure a 5-4 match triumph for the Wolverines in the second round of the state 1A playoffs.

Polk County (11-2) moves into the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2017 and will travel Monday to Mount Airy to face the top-seeded Granite Bears (22-0).

Brown and Sheffron’s win came after the Wolverines put together an impressive effort in singles play, taking four of the six matches. That included tiebreaker victories for Elizabeth Vitale and Brown and a 6-0, 6-0 rout at No. 4 singles by Tali Thompson.

“I know what we did yesterday, so I knew it could be done,” Becker said. “But I didn’t want to happen by any means.

“We were able to get one court. We only needed one and we got it, and I’m really proud of these girls. We had a couple of tiebreakers, which they really battled to win.”