Chapel Hill claims Big 8 girls tennis singles and doubles conference championships

In the absence of her teammate, Chapel Hill’s Hailey Polsky captured the Big 8 singles championship at Orange High tennis courts.

Polsky defeated Northwood’s Sam Sparrow 6-1, 6-1 in the final after defeating Northwood’s Faith Peoples 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.

“I think I played pretty well in all of my matches,” said Polsky, who captured her first conference championship. “It got harder towards the end.”

Unfortunately, the number one singles seed never got to the tournament. Chapel Hill’s Gabe Chew, 13-2 on the season, had to forfeit her quarterfinal match against Sparrow due to timing issues. Chew was required to attend a choral rehearsal that started after classes at CHHS concluded at 4 p.m.

Since she was top-seeded, Chew received a bye into the quarterfinals. Sparrow won her match against Jasmine White of Northern Vance 5-7, 6-2, 10-7, to advance to face Chew at 4:15 p.m. Once it was clear that Chew wouldn’t arrive before 5 p.m., Chapel Hill coach Neil Alderman, Northwood coach John Delafield and tournament director Andy Brown followed tournament protocol and awarded the match to Sparrow.

“It was wrong and it shouldn’t have happened,” said Brown.

Polsky, Sparrow, Peoples and Cedar Ridge’s Tess Johnson advanced to the regionals at the Burlington Tennis Center as singles players.

The doubles championship was an all-Chapel Hill affair. Sophomore Gabby Kmiec and freshman Carolina Coch defeated teammates Ellen Yu and Joy Stouffer 6-2, 6-1.

“We were playing really well today,” said Kmiec. “Hopefully that will carry over into the regionals.”

When Kmiec and Coch were paired together by Alderman in August, it came as a surprise to both of them.

“We thought that we would be playing doubles with different people,” said Coch. “We’re a good team.”

In addition to the two Chapel Hill teams, Cedar Ridge’s Leah Thompson and Maddie Allen and Northwood’s Allyson Blake and Evie Hoffman also qualified for regionals.

Coch, as a freshman, was named Big 8 Player of the Year while Alderman was named coach of the year.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Chapel Hill claims Big 8 girls tennis singles and doubles conference championships."