Both girls and boys teams for Gainesville and Flowery Branch stormed through the brackets at the Region 8-AAAAA tournament on Tuesday, setting up showdowns between each program for region titles on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, there were few surprises Tuesday at the Region 7-AAA tennis championships at the Bobby Bailey Tennis Center.
Unless you count the fact the the North Hall girls and both the Buford boys and girls teams will be making their first trips to the state tournament since George W. Bush was president.
For the North Hall girls it is their first trip in more than a decade. For Buford, which played in the rugged Region 6-AA with the likes of Lovett, St. Pius, and Westminster, neither team had made the tournament since the 2006 season.
"They are all very excited about (making it to state)," Buford coach Roger West said. "We have had some excellent teams over the years but could never make it out of the region. We felt we had a good shot today and everyone really played well."
The top four seeds in the boys and the top three seeds in the girls tournaments all advanced to next week's state tournament.
Buford and West Hall will play for the boys title while North Hall and Buford will play for the girls title. The girls final is slated to begin at 3:30 p.m. and the boys final will begin at 5 p.m. at Bobby Bailey.
In the third-place matches, West Hall, which came in as the fifth seeed, and Banks County will play in the girls tournament and North Hall and Banks County will play in the boys tournament.
The top-seeded Buford boys continued their dominant season with quick wins over White County and Banks County to advance to the finals. The Wolves are a perfect 19-0 on the season.
West Hall, the No. 2 seed, beat Fannin County 4-0 and then dispatched North Hall 3-0 to make the finals.
Spartans coach John McFall knows they will have their hands full against the Wolves in the finals.
"They are a solid team top to bottom. I don't know if they have a weakness," McFall said. "We'll have to play our best match of the year to beat them. But we'll show up (Wednesday) ready to play."
Buford beat West Hall 5-0 and 4-1 during the regular season and is led by senior Colby West, who is undefeated on the season at No. 1 singles.
North Hall and Banks County advanced with wins over East Hall and Dawson County, respectively.
In the girls tournament, top-seeded North Hall and No. 2 seed Buford advanced to Wednesday's finals with neither team dropping a match. North Hall took 3-0 wins over East Hall and West Hall while Buford beat Fannin County 5-0 and Banks County 3-0.
Across Interstate 985, the 8-AAAAA tournament played out as many expected, as the Gainesville boys and girls continued their impressive run of domination in league play -- but the Falcons boys and girls did likewise and will challenge the Red Elephants for the region crown on Wednesday.
Gainesville's girls opened the tournament with a 3-1 defeat of Cedar Shoals before cruising past Winder-Barrow 3-0 in the semifinal round.
Flowery Branch was equally impressive, blanking Loganville, 3-0, and Heritagem, Conyers, 3-0. The victories set up a 6 p.m. Wednesday face off with Gainesville at Flowery Branch High.
The Falcons and Red Elephants boys, meanwhile, will battle at 6 p.m. Wednesday at C.W. Davis Middle School after each moved into the championship round.
Gainesville crushed Loganville and Heritage, Conyers, 3-0. Meanwhile, the Falcons fought past Clarke Central 3-2 in the opening round and found their rhythm in the semifinal, hammering Winder-Barrow 3-0.
Buford No. 1 singles player Colby West hammers a ground stroke during Region 7-AAA tournament play on Tuesday in Flowery Branch.
Gainesville's girls swept through Region 8-AAAAA tournament play on Tuesday in Flowery Branch.
Flowery Branch's Dani Taylor eyes a volley on Tuesday during the Region 8-AAAAA tennis tournament in Flowery Branch.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/4/260551