Successful first step: Washington cruises to first-round dual team win

Published 3:03 am Tuesday, October 22, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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Monday’s first round of the Class 2-A dual team tennis playoffs served as a good warmup and a lesson at the same time.

From here, the stakes only get higher.

The Pam Pack beat Goldsboro 9-0 on Monday at home and will travel to longtime Class 2-A tennis power Roanoke Rapids on Wednesday. Washington looked good in quickly moving through singles, where they swept to pick up the team win. Outside a slight slump before righting the ship at No. 1 doubles, the Pam Pack quickly moved through that level, too, to wrap things up.

Addie Gibbs and Avery Thomas will represent the Pam Pack at the Class 2-A state tournament this weekend at Ting Park in Holly Springs. They finished as runners-up at the Eastern Regionals last weekend. While the duo did win against Goldsboro, 8-4, on Monday it wasn’t without some struggles at the start.

Thomas and Gibbs were tied 4-4 with the Goldsboro team of Cameron King and Addison Smith. The Pack duo won the next game to go up 5-4 before having a quick meeting with assistant coach Michele Mayo.

Whatever was said worked as Thomas and Gibbs reeled off 10 of the next 12 points to roll to a win.

“(Mayo) just kind of told us to play our game and put it where they weren’t,” Gibbs said. “And just, I mean, it wasn’t going our way, but she told us to keep it going. And we got it back.

“When we win, we always want to win our doubles because that’s what we’re going to state for. So we kind of just want to send that message that we’re ready and we want to beat everyone that comes our way.”

“Sometimes they forget and that’s what we do is just kind of remind them some of the things,” Pippin said of Mayo’s words of encouragement. “I think she told them placement, place the ball in certain spots, do different things, and they’re real coachable. So they did that and started to change things around.”

Madison Swanner and Alaina Moore won at No. 2 doubles over Hailey Spencer and Ava Fallon, 8-0, while the Pack’s No. 3 doubles team of Olivia Feyer and Emery Linton won over Goldsboro’s Hadley Frederick and Michala Vaughn, 8-1.

In singles, Gibbs beat King, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1. The other Washington winners were No. 2 Thomas (beat Smith, 6-0, 6-0), No. 3 Moore (6-0, 6-1 vs. Spencer), No. 4 Feyer (6-0, 6-1 over Fallon), No. 5 Swanner (6-1, 6-4 over Frederick) and No. 6 Linton (6-1, 6-1 over Vaughn).

“Yeah, I think we’re going pretty good,” Thomas said after her win in singles about the next challenge. “And I think if everybody does their part, we can, as far as we’ve gone, I think it’s the third round since I’ve been here. So I think we could possibly go farther than that.”

Pippin, Mayo, Thomas, Gibbs and the rest of the Pack have a busy week with the second-round match on Wednesday and the weekend of tennis for the doubles team. Everyone is hopeful for continued positive results all the way around.

“Yes, yeah, we didn’t know what to expect from Goldsboro,” Pippin said of facing the Cougars for the first time this season. “And so I thought they did well again, we did well against them. And it will definitely be good practice for Wednesday.”

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