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Gryphons fall to Cameron Union Pines in third round of tennis playoffs

Posted On: Thursday, November 05, 2015
By: Student Assistant
Mary Blair Thompson, of Rocky Mount High, hits the ball Wednesday during a NCHSAA 3-A state playoffs third round match between Rocky Mount High and Cameron Union Pines at Rocky Mount High School. Photograph by Adam Jennings.

Mary Blair Thompson, of Rocky Mount High, hits the ball Wednesday during a NCHSAA 3-A state playoffs third round match between Rocky Mount High and Cameron Union Pines at Rocky Mount High School. Photograph by Adam Jennings.

Eliza Fike, of Rocky Mount High, hits the ball Wednesday during a NCHSAA 3-A state playoffs third round match between Rocky Mount High and Cameron Union Pines at Rocky Mount High School. Photograph by Adam Jennings.

Eliza Fike, of Rocky Mount High, hits the ball Wednesday during a NCHSAA 3-A state playoffs third round match between Rocky Mount High and Cameron Union Pines at Rocky Mount High School. Photograph by Adam Jennings.

 

 

To no fault of their own, Rocky Mount High had not seen the brand of girls’ tennis that drove an hour and a half to its campus Wednesday afternoon.

Cameron Union Pines, of the historically-tough-on-the-Gryphons-in-the-playoffs Cape Fear Valley Conference, wasn’t content with just hitting balls past Rocky Mount.

If still images could tell Wednesday’s story, they would show each of the six Gryphons singles players stretching to return balls across the net in a manner which wasn’t necessary their previous 14 matches.

Slice after slice forced Rocky Mount players to return balls that oftentimes were mid-calf high, and the Gryphons could not adjust to that style or a superior Cameron Union Pines lineup that came away with a 5-1 victory in the third round of the NCHSAA 3-A state playoffs.

“I haven’t seen a team that has been able to slice like that,” Gryphons coach Barry Nethercutt said. “You can slice it to keep it in play, but theirs was effective because it stayed low and had bite on it. It’s something most girls can’t do or won’t do, and it’s tough to play against.”

Rocky Mount (14-1) had breezed through its previous matches, winning the Big East Conference championship and sending a pair of doubles teams (Brenna Bryant/Chandler Brice and Eliza Fike/Mary Blair Thompson) to the state tournament last weekend in Burlington.

None of those experiences quite prepared the Gryphons against Union Pines, which has been one of the top-ranked 3-A programs all season long. Nethercutt’s squad lost to a Cape Fear Valley Conference team for the third consecutive postseason. Fayetteville Terry Sanford defeated Rocky Mount the previous two seasons.

Senior Chandler Brice pulled out the only Gryphons victory, 6-3, 7-5 at the No. 2 spot, but even her match did not come without considerable frustration because of mistakes or simply playing the caliber of opponent the Gryphons did not face in a weak Big East Conference this season.

In those matches, the Gryphons dictated the points, and returns did not often require scraping one’s racquet on the court.

There was little drama against Cameron Union Pines, whose No. 1 and No. 2 seeds won the 3-A state doubles tournament last weekend.

So even if the match – which technically ended with Gryphons No. 5 player Sarah Bland losing 6-4, 6-3 – had continued into a darkening sky, Rocky Mount would have faced an uphill task in doubles action against Union Pines (14-1).

“We didn’t really have top competition throughout the season,” Thompson said. “It was nice to hit with people like that who will get our returning players more prepared for next year. They had good shots and great angles.”

Brice, Fike and Thompson – the Gryphons’ No. 2, 3 and 4 players – will all graduate in the spring. Bryant returns at the top spot, and a crop of new players has Nethercutt confident that his Gryphons can possibly take another shot at a Cameron Union Pines team in 2016.

“It’s a group that’s going to have good chemistry, and I’m excited about it,” Nethercutt said. “I’m already looking forward to it right now.”

 

 

By Jessie H. Nunery

Sports Editor for Rocky Mount Telegram

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