The Dover Girls’ 2023 tennis season officially started on August 1st. The girls play a series of duel matches to prepare themselves for sectionals. For the past couple of years, the girls’ tennis team has been divided, making it difficult to advance out of sectionals. The competition level of tennis has only been increasing over the years. For North Eastern girls’ tennis sectionals, 18 teams competed this year. Sectionals are divided into two groups: singles and doubles. Ultimately, all the singles players are in a bracket and all the doubles players are in a bracket.
The lineup of singles and doubles in the main season doesn’t always mean it’s the same lineup for sectional matches. For example, there is the possibility of having a team’s first and second singles stack to be a doubles team. Teams and coaches can choose whether or not they want to stack. If you are first, second, or third singles, you could still potentially play a player from a different team that has a higher or lower rank than you might be. For instance, maybe Dover’s second singles is drawn to play Hoover’s first singles.
The same thing goes for doubles; a first doubles team is maybe playing another team’s first or second doubles. A few days in advance, the coaches discuss the top four seeding for sectionals in both singles and doubles. After they determine the seeds, they move on to the draw. The draw is random, meaning it is honestly “the luck of the draw”. Some players might have a more difficult first match than others. Players have to prepare themselves for who they play. They also have to factor in that they may not have seen a team play before, and might not know what to expect. Tennis players have to constantly adjust or adapt to their opponents and have to figure out strengths and weaknesses as they play.
On the first day of sectionals, all players are promised at least one match. If you win, you advance to a second match, and if the second match is won, you move to play a third match. You can not play more than three matches on the first day. If a player loses at any point, they are out. Match play this year started at 9am. Typically, players that are seeded have a bye in the first round; therefore, they have to win two matches to advance to the second day of sectionals. Players who are not seeded usually are put on right away. This year, Jackson had ten courts and used to put singles out to begin. After the singles play their first round, doubles play begins.
Dover’s first singles, Taylor Rose, was the third seed for sectionals. After a few hours of watching my teammates play, she had her first match against Glenoak’s third singles and won 6-0 6-0. She went on to defeat Hoover’s third singles with a score of 6-0 6-0 and to qualify for districts, she defeated Lake’s first singles 6-4 6-0. Dover’s second singles, Abby Ice, played her first match against McKinley’s second singles and won 6-3 6-3. She moved on to her second match of the day and unfortunately lost to North Canton’s first singles 4-6 4-6. It was a tough match fought to the very end, but Abby continued to cheer and support her teammates throughout the rest of the day. Dover’s third singles, Bekah Dorris, defeated Barberton’s second singles player 6-1 6-0. Bekah moved on to play Perry’s first singles, who was the second seed and fell short 1-6 0-6.
Dover’s first doubles, Avery Contini and Morgan Huston, won their first match against Boardman 6-1 6-2. The girls lost their first set in their second match against Akron North but fought hard to go into a tiebreaker for the second set. Unfortunately, the first doubles lost that tiebreak 5-10. Dover’s second doubles, Hallie Lint and Bella Maize, won their first match against Lake’s first doubles 6-1 6-4. Their second match was Hoover’s stacked first doubles team, and lost 0-6 0-6. In this year’s sectionals, the Dover girls’ tennis team fought and played well. They are ending the season on a good note and setting the bar high for next year’s tennis season.
