Greenville Girls Tennis Repeats as AAAA State Champions

Greenville Girls Tennis Repeats as AAAA State Champions

The Greenville Red Raiders Girls Tennis Team entered 2017 as defending Class AAAA State Champions, but also as a very young team.  Greenville features only one senior in their top 5 and 8th graders Julia Price and Wylie Jopling compete as the teams No. 1 and No. 5 respectively.  To defend their 2016 title, the Red Raiders were going to need success from their young players.  

They got it.  The Red Raiders swept through Region I-AAAA and grabbed a #1 seed in the Class AAAA playoffs where they dispatched with Greer, Aiken and Travelers Rest in the first three rounds by a score of 19-0.  In the Upper State Finals, Greenville beat region rival Daniel 5-1 to advance to the State Finals to face AC Flora.  In the finals, Emma McFall, Gracie Walls and Jopling secured wins in the No. 3, 4, 5 matches, but Flora won the No 1 and 2 matches, defeating Price and Layton Powell.  That left doubles play to decide the match.  Senior Kate Keller and sophomore Sophie Young dropped the first set in No. 2 doubles 6-7, but stormed back to take the second set 6-3 and third set 10-7, securing the title for Greenville.  

The Red Raiders are now back-to-back Class AAAA State Champions and still a relatively young team for third year head coach Mike McCuen. Seniors Kate Keller and Gracie Walls were key to the Raiders repeat, both securing points in the 4-2 victory.  Price, Powell, Jopling, McFall, Young all return, giving the Raiders a very deep and young core as they continue to build a dynasty at Greenville.

Posted: 11/6/2017 | Author: Jeff Hoffman