CHAPEL HILL -- In his second year as head coach of the Green Hope girls' tennis team, Kevin Taylor hoped this year's scheduling would help the team learn from the mistakes of one year ago. On Wednesday night, his plan came together perfectly.
The Falcons (20-2) defeated second-ranked East Chapel Hill 5-4 in the second round of the NCHSAA dual team tennis playoffs. Green Hope, which lost to East 6-3 on October 7, carried four of the six singles matches on the way to an upset over the PAC-6 champion.
Last season, in Taylor's first year, Green Hope went 17-0 during the regular season but lost in the first round of the dual playoffs.
Determined not to have another postseason flop, Taylor scheduled powerful teams like East Chapel Hill and Broughton to prepare his team for a possible state championship run.
"It helped us to play East earlier this month," said Taylor. "To come to a place that we've never been to before made us more prepared for tonight.
"[East Chapel Hill coach] Lindsay [Linker] always run a first-class, high-character program and her teams always come ready to play."
The difference between the two matches came in No. 3singles. The Falcons' Laura Williams, who was injured in the prior match against East, rallied to beat Tegan Flynn 4-6, 6-2, 10-8, despite trailing 5-1 in the tiebreaker at one point.
"That was the biggest point in the match," Taylor said. "She showed a lot of fight and courage to come back from that. It was great for the team and helped us to a win tonight."
Melissa Kandinata improved her record to 19-0 with a straight-sets victory over Tamara Hill in the top singles match. Helen Wang and Audrey Channell also claimed singles victories for the Falcons.
Leading 4-2 going into the doubles round, Kayla Stokes and Brianna Steele moved the Falcons' into the third round with a 9-4 win over East's Brittany Hill and Jasmine Sun.
It was a bitter night for the Wildcats, who scheduled senior night on Wednesday because they played so many of their final regular season matches on the road.
The Wildcats were the 4-A state runners-up in 2008, losing to Charlotte Myers Park in the championship match.
