BY COLLIN BROOKS

CORRESPONDENT

collin.Brooks@elizabethton.com

Despite only dropping their second contest of the year, the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones tennis team saw their season come to an end with a 4-1 loss against Greeneville in the Region 1-A/AA Championship Thursday.

But even though their season has ended, Lady Cyclones’ coach Leanne Click was proud of her girls and their District 1-A/AA championship.

“The season overall, was, gosh, you can’t beat it,” Click said. “We won most of our matches 8-1 or 8-0. We were pretty consistent, so we played well. I am very proud of them throughout the season.”

The lone win for the Lady Cyclones on the day came from the doubles team of Danielle Vines and Eliana Rangel, who defeated the top two players for the Lady Greene Devils, Sydni Lollar and Ellie Pectol, 8-6.

“I felt like I did really well under the pressure and I kind of found out what they didn’t like and I hit those shots,” Vines said.

But the other team wasn’t as fortunate as Halie Collins and Rachael Peters dropped their match to Madison Hite and Gracie Blair 8-1.

Starting out with doubles was a strategic move for the Lady Cyclones, according to their coach.

“We kind went with doubles first, so that we might hopefully get a jump start on them and get Dani to be able to play two matches, because once you hit four it’s done,” Click said.

But that didn’t go the Lady Cyclones way, as Peters dropped her singles match to Hite 6-0, 6-0, followed by Elizabethton’s Carole Sweely dropping her match 6-1, 6-4 to Greenville’s Madison Grubbs.

At the conclusion of those matches, the rain started to fall, which forced Vines and Collins off of the court for their matches. However, the Lady Greene Devils were able to wrap up the championship with a 6-0, 6-1 win for Bailey Snelson over Rangel.

“They are very consistent, they keep it in and they keep it going and they rally,” Click said. “They are a good team and they deserve to be where they are.”

It was a good showing for a young Lady Cyclones team, who will return all of their players except Collins, who will play at the college level.

“I hate it for Halie, she is our only senior, but she is going on to Milligan to play, so she isn’t finished,” Click said. “But our other ones are pretty young.

“They’ve been working day in and day out to get where they want to be, so I am very proud of them. I have enjoyed this tennis season like crazy.”

Now all of the Lady Cyclones will turn into fans as they will root for Vines to defend her state title in singles play. The regional tournament will take place on Monday, at Elizabethton High School starting at 10 a.m.