Cardinal Gibbons sweeps PAC-6 girls tennis championships

As long as there is an N.C. High School Athletics Association tennis tournament, it seems Cardinal Gibbons will be there.

“It doesn’t matter what classification – 3A, 4A – they’re still good,” East Chapel Hill tennis coach Nick Walker said Wednesday evening after the Crusaders doubles team of Caroline Igo and Summer Jacobs won a PAC-6 title with a straight set victory, 6-3, 6-1 over East’s Victoria Jones and Cassidy Bright.

Cardinal Gibbons, which won two straight 3A state championships before it rolled undefeated through PAC-6 dual-team matches in the Crusaders’ first season as a 4A program, qualified multiple entries for next week’s NCHSAA individual regionals, as did conference runner-up East Chapel Hill and third-place finisher Riverside.

Playing at East Chapel Hill’s Wildcat Tennis Stadium, Riverside sophomore Lauren Laughton (14-5) won the PAC-6 singles “championship” with an 8-0 victory over Cardinal Gibbons junior Kate Freed.

Quote marks went around the title because the PAC-6, with five NCHSAA postseason slots in both singles and doubles, opted to give its top seeds a bye through the conference tournament. All singles and doubles entries who reached the semifinals of Wednesday’s playoffs also advanced to the individual regionals.

Despite skipping the conference tournament, East Chapel Hill ninth-grader Savannah Bright (9-3) will be the PAC-6’s top singles entry in NCHSAA play, while Cardinal Gibbons’s doubles team of junior Lizzie Galush and sophomore Jenna Knors (11-0) also will go to the regionals as a No. 1 seed.

Riverside’s Laughton (14-5) reached last year’s PAC-6 singles final before falling to Jones of East. With Jones concentrating on doubles, Laughton was positive she would do well this time around as the top seed in the conference playoffs.

“I knew that with Cardinal Gibbons in the conference that the competition was going to be tough,” Laughton said. “I just wanted to keep my confidence up and play like that – with confidence.”

Bright, Laughton and Freed will be joined in the NCHSAA regionals by Cardinal Gibbons ninth-grader Karly Fitzgerald (16-2) and Riverside junior Sophie Bischoff (15-3). Fitzgerald upset No. 2 seeded junior Iskra Joksimovic 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before losing 6-1, 6-1 to Laughton in the semis. Bischoff (15-3) punched her ticket for the regionals by defeating Jenny Kostiainen of Roxboro Person 6-0, 6-1 to reach the semifinals. Bischoff’s 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) semifinal loss to Freed was the most competitive match of the day.

The Person doubles team of Cassidy Gillie and Victoria Dunn qualified for the regionals by reaching the semifinals against East’s Jones and Bright, who swept the Rocket pair 6-0, 6-0. Gillie and Dunn had played together just six times before Wednesday, going 1-5, but that was still more times than Jones and Bright, who were paired together for the first time Wednesday.

East Chapel Hill seniors Jocelyn Reckford and Madison Lewis qualified for the NCHSAA tournament by defeating Person juniors Hannah Holt and Kayla Tillman 6-1, 6-1, to reach the semifinals against Igo and Jacobs. Reckford-Lewis fell 7-5, 6-2 to Igo-Jacobs.

“We played well today against some tough competition,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Andrew Tuttle said. “I’m glad for all our players who qualified for regionals. I’m especially glad for our No. 5 and 6 singles (Freed and Fitzgerald.) This is their chance to shine.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Cardinal Gibbons sweeps PAC-6 girls tennis championships."