Washington tennis capped off an undefeated campaign in the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference last Thursday. The Pam Pack finished 8-0 and swept five of those matches.

The boys sealed the deal with a 7-2 win over second-place North Johnston last week. Washington suffered a pair of singles losses in the match. Ben McKeithan fell to Jonathan Gonzalez and Mac Skillen lost to Ian Walston.

The Pam Pack highlighted its team’s strength with a dominant showing in doubles, as has been the case all season. Holt and Ben McKeithan, the No. 1 doubles pair, defeated Tyler Jackson and Gonzalez 8-0. Zack Pagnani and Mac Skillen won their set 8-1. Eric Crozier and Dylan Singleton were played closer by Jeremiah Coley and Hunter Moore, but came up with the 9-7 win.

Coach Miranda Whitley knows that doubles action is Washington’s strong suit heading into Wednesday’s conference tournament and the rest of the postseason.

“Throughout the regular season, I felt like doubles was our strong suit,” Whitley said. “I’m happy with all of their decisions to go into the conference tournament as doubles teams. I feel like that’s where the team, as a whole, is stronger.”

The regular-season championship is but one goal achieved. The Pam Pack set its sights high in the preseason — especially after last year’s success — and now prepares for its loftier goals.

“I was hoping for being conference champs,” Whitley said. “This is the third year in a row that we were conference champs, so that was good. We are currently preparing for the conference tournament. All three doubles teams are playing in the conference tournament. … The top six gets to choose whether they want to do singles or doubles. All of ours are doing doubles.”

The McKeithan brothers elected to compete as a pair because it’s what they did last year and it yielded success. They finished last season as the regional runners up. Whitley doesn’t believe it adds any more pressure to the fraternal tandem. Instead, it serves as motivation.

“I’m hoping that they can avenge that and be the regional champions this year,” Whitley said. “I think that they have the ability and they’re used to playing with each other. I don’t think they feel any pressure.”

Crozier and Singleton felt they would have a batter chance of advancing past the conference tournament as a pair rather than competing solo. Pagnani and Skillen faced a similar decision. Whitley felt they would have been successful no matter which route they took, but also really liked their progress as a tandem.

“Over the season, (Pagnani and Skillen) have really grown as a doubles pair,” Whitley said. “They learned a lot about each other’s games. They’re more comfortable with each other, so they decided this past weekend they were going to do doubles.”

Looking a bit beyond Wednesday’s conference tournament, the Pam Pack will host its first-round playoff match against a wild card team. The official draw will come out on Monday. After that, the top-four doubles teams from the conference tournament will qualify for regionals. That will take place late next week.