PREP TENNIS: Hidden Valley too Good for Falcons

EMORY, Va. – There were no regrets, no recriminations, no what-might-have-beens for Abingdon’s girls tennis team.
Hidden Valley was simply too good for the Falcons.

Flashing superior depth and skill throughout the lineup, the unbeaten Titans took the Region IV championship trophy back to Roanoke Tuesday with a 6-0 decision at Emory & Henry College.

Becoming the latest River Ridge District program to benefit from Virginia High School League realignment that shipped it out of tough Region III, Hidden Valley (16-0) won four matches at love and dropped just three games in a fifth.

“Once we got our of our district,” Titans coach Tommy George said, “things set up pretty well for us.”

As for the Falcons (12-5), they had no complaints and few long faces. Merely progressing to the regional title match represented an unqualified success.

“I felt like we played really well this year,” senior Julia Smith said. “We lost three seniors from last year, but we practiced year-round for the first time. You’re not competitive if you don’t.

“Hidden Valley was excellent. They were twice as good as Graham and we lost to Graham. They [Hidden Valley] had excellent players.”

Still, Smith and the Falcons were conceding nothing mentally – at least when they walked on the court to start the match.

“We came in with a really excellent attitude,” Smith said. “Caitlin Hatcher, our number five player, said, ‘Go in to win.’ If you think you’re going to win, you’re going to.”

But thinking they were going to win did nothing for the Southwest District runnerup. The only competitive match came at No. 2 singles, where junior Hannah Graham nearly supplied a point.

Battling back from a one-set deficit, Graham won a second-set tiebreaker, then took a 6-2 lead in a 10-game tiebreaker against Emily Seibert.

But Graham’s groundstrokes betrayed her from there and Seibert scratched out a 10-7 win. Seibert played only because the Titans’ regular No. 2 player was sidelined with a sprained ankle.

No matter the names, though, RRD schools figure to be difficult to beat for SWD teams over many years. Enjoying the advantages of superior feeder programs, the advanced RRD programs can trot out polished players at nearly every spot.

“They’re solid one through six,” third-year Abingdon coach Mary Beverly said of Hidden Valley. “I didn’t see too many weaknesses out there. They should do well at state.”
Despite the result, Beverly saluted her team’s accomplishments and ability to cohere on and off the court.

“There was a definite sense of camaraderie,” she said. “They hang out outside of tennis ... for a girls team, they get along really well. They just click together.”

Beverly’s No. 1 doubles team of Smith and Morgan are still alive for another week. They’ll play a Hidden Valley duo May 27 in a Region IV semifinal at E&H.

Singles players from Marion and Graham will represent the SWD in the regional semifinals. The Group AA Tournament is June 5-7 at Radford University.

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