The Coaches meeting has been concluded and the biggest adjustment is that the Boys singles will now start at the same time (10:00) instead of afterwards.

Erika McKenzie will start on Court #4 and Ethan Richardson on Court #10. Both will be getting underway in a few minutes.

The courts are divided 1-3, 4-6 and 7-10.

Courts 7-10 have been declared unplayable and we will now be using courts 1-6 only.

Ethan’s opening match was one of the two delayed by the change of courts being used.

Erika’s match against the #2 seed from Abingdon just ended at 10:40 am. While there were some long volleys along the way, the match ended in straight sets.

10:50 – Ethan is warming up on Court 6 and will face the #6 seed from Cave Spring shortly.

11: 27 – Ethan is heading into his second set now, having dropped the opening one.

The definition of Doubles partners is sharing the same chair 💺.

11:45 – time to acknowledge the folks that made the trek up from Carroll County on a Monday morning. Besides the four athletes and two Coaches, we have three additional members of the Richardson family 👪. Dad, Kris ➕ Mom, Paula and Grandmother 👵 Linda. We might should count Martin McKenzie twice, once as Dad and once as Coach.

11:54 – Ethan Richardson has completed his Singles match and it concludes the opening round of Singles altogether. Both Cavaliers have finished their Singles careers.

The final score was 6-3, 6-1 in the Singles match for Richardson.

Both Carroll County doubles teams will be back on the courts shortly.

Meanwhile, inside the Gym, we find 💘 for our own Brandi Cochran Mitchell !

We just found at that the Girls will start at 1pm on Court #3!!!

1:11 – Match on…

2:06 – Girls trail 4-3 in second set. Boys early in 1st set

2:15 – Girls fall 6-4, season now over for the Lady Cavaliers 👩.

Boys dropped opening set, 6-3.

Boys leading 2nd set, 2-1.

Now trailing, 3-2.

Up, 4-3. Now 4-4, Down 5-4 at 2:52

5-5 @ 2:59, Up 6-5!

6-6, headed to Tiebreaker

3:14 – Final, Cavs drop tiebreaker 9-7…

One of the cool things about today is the fact that our Tennis 🎾 players will get to feel excitement around them while they are representing Carroll County High School.

They will get to play their sport on a College campus and because there will be eight Girls and eight Boys playing Singles, plus 16 doubles partners, there will be a minimum of 32 players present.

High School Tennis is a sport that holds a different level for all of the Regional teams. Some of the teams and players are perusing State Championships on their way to College Tennis while others are just enjoying their time on the court.

Today will center around six people for Carroll County High School.

On the Girls side, Head Coach Martin McKenzie, his daughter Erika and her doubles partner, Khloe Akers.

On the Boys side, Head Coach Christy Shupe, Ethan Richardson and his doubles partner, Maverick Baker.

The challenge today, from my perspective, is to capture the efforts of this group of folks and frame it in a manner that matches their time invested.

The brackets are seeded one through eight, with 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 competing in the opening round. Richardson, as a #3 seed in Singles is the only one of the four Cavaliers that would be considered a favorite to earn a victory today in the single elimination event.

  The first victory came in the fact that CCHS qualified in all four categories. Each player and team finished their regular season with a winning record and they faced some Schools that take Tennis pretty seriously.

  Today will be the final stop ✋for both of our #1 players as McKenzie and Richardson both just graduated 🎓. Martin McKenzie will be wrapping up his two year stint as the Girls coach at the end of the event. Shupe was gracious enough to step up and guide the Boys side this season and her future is unknown to me at this point.

Both Akers and Baker will be back at it next season, with bigger roles to play as the top player.

Back to today, the goal isn’t to get people to flock up to Hollins University and watch the matches. It’s to have people show appreciation for the efforts that these two Adults and four Students have put forth in the name of Carroll County High School Tennis.

10:00 – Erika McKenzie will get things started for Carroll County High School as the recent Graduate 🎓 plays her QF Singles match.

  Once the four Girls matches have been completed, the Boys four matches  begin alongside the Girls Semi-finals. Ethan Richardson will start his final run as a Cavalier.

Once the Singles have been through two rounds they will stop for the day and the two Finalists will return for Tuesday. It will take two wins on Monday for a return trip on Tuesday morning 🌄.

On the doubles side of things, Ethan and Maverick Baker or Erika and Khloe Akers will need to win once to earn a return trip.

  The winners 🏆 of the four brackets, Girls Singles, Girls Doubles, Boys Singles and Boys Doubles, will advance to the State Tournament.

We will provide coverage until all four players have concluded their season. The action 🎬 starts at 10:00 am.