The Rockdale County and Heritage High School girls tennis programs faced off Wednesday afternoon on the Lady Patriots’ home court, testing each other one final time before region tournament play begins in two weeks.
The Lady Bulldogs walked away with a commanding 5-0 victory, sweeping singles and doubles play, but for both head coaches, the match’s final result meant less than having an extra opportunity to face some stiff competition before the start of tournament play.
“When we made the schedule this season, having a game like this at the end of the year was one of our goals,” Rockdale coach Stephen Sansing said. “In the past week we’ve faced Union Grove, Grayson and Heritage. The idea was to really give us some great, competitive matches heading into the postseason. We were able to accomplish that.
“Even though some of the final scores don’t look like competitive games, they truly were,” he said. “It was often very close and points could have gone either way. Playing against Heritage today is going to help us moving forward and it will help us get that right mindset heading into the region tournament. I’m glad we were able to play our best today.”
Summer Walker led off singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 win in No. 1 singles over Heritage’s Bianca Brown. Teammate Destiny Commodore followed with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in No. 2 singles over Fran Murray and McKenna Comiskey wrapped up singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep in No. 3 singles over Logan Bouchillon.
In doubles action, the Lady Patriots picked up a set victory in No. 2 doubles, but the Heritage team of Melissa Godwin and Becca Rackley were unable to hold off Rockdale’s Sydney Norton and Alliyah Byrd in the third and final set, falling 1-6, 6-4, 2-6 in No. 2 doubles.
The Lady Bulldogs’ No. 1 doubles team of Abby Bradford and Tiara Anthony had little trouble with Heritage’s Julie Roseberry and Addy Allegretti, besting the Lady Patriots 6-2, 6-0.
“We wanted to get as much playing time in before spring break hit and we wanted to face a good program,” Heritage coach Brian Smith said. “Today’s match was great preparation for our region tournament. We’re going to be seeing teams like Rockdale in the state playoffs, so it was good to go up against that caliber of competition. A lot of the kids know each other really well and it’s great to continue that competitive, friendly rivalry.”
Both teams will step back into region play at the start of their respective conference tournaments on April 15.
