I suppose we owe an apology to the high school boys who played tennis this year. As we have commented following many of our sports articles, we rely on reports from coaches, players, parents and fans for information on high school sports. We've contacted athletic directors and asked them to ask their coaches to supply us with that information--and the response has been mixed.
For basketball, East Lincoln provided us with reports on every one of their boys and girls games. We got excellent information on the West Lincoln girls golf team last Fall, but nothing about the boys this Spring. The athletic director at North Lincoln provided us with info on the boys basketball games--but we had to search for info elsewhere on the girls. Last Fall, we got excellent info on the Lincolnton boys soccer team; but nothing on the girls this year.
We haven't the staff to cover all of the sports events, so we need information from the schools (and others) to recognize the student athletes.
We did report on some of the tennis matches this season, but try as we may, we couldn't get info on all of them. So, better late than never, here's a recap of sorts.
Hickory's boys tennis team dominated the Western Foothills Conference. The Red Tornadoes went 10-0 overall, 6-0 in the league. St. Stephens was almost as good: with an 11-1 overall and 5-1 conference record. Fred T. Foard was 8-2, 2-5 in the conference. North Lincoln finished 3-4, 3-3 in the league. East Lincoln was 3-9 overall, 2-5 in the WFAC.
The Conference Tournament had two Lincoln County players in the top four in singles play. The winners were:
Singles:
1st - Ajay Swisher (St. Stephens)
2nd - Blake Walker (St Stephens)
3rd - Riley Carroll (N Lincoln)
4th - Max Patterson (E Lincoln)
Doubles:
1st - Griffin Lovern / Costen Holtzman (Hickory)
2nd - Lewis Tate / Clint Powers (Hickory)
3rd - Graham Wright / Connor Josey (Foard)
4th - Grayson Walker / Aiden Ollis (Foard)
Lincolnton was to the Catawba Valley Conference what Hickory was to the WFAC. The Wolves were 7-0 in the league, 10-0 overall. Given their success, it makes it even more disappointing that nobody cared to share the info.
Bandys finished with a record of 8-2 overall, 6-1 in the conference. Their only losses were to LHS and a non-conference match with St. Stephens. Maiden was 4-5, 4-3 in the conference.
While the WFAC tournament was played at North Lincoln, the CVAC tournament was at Maiden--but nobody reported anything about the scores.
Zach Zagortski and Piero Rovalino of LHS were both 7-0 in singles play and as a duo in doubles. Zander Harrison was 5-0 and teamed with Jason Jin for a 4-1 record in doubles. Gavin Hendricks and Evan Naylor had a 3-0 record in doubles play. Gabe Weathers was 3-0 and Jose Ramirez 2-0 in singles.
We are more than happy to report on high school sports and to recognize those who participate; but we can't do it without help from coaches, players, parents and fans.
