GAINESVILLE — Kellie Smith sees no reason why her Gainesville girls tennis team can't reach the state championship match.
"I feel strong from our singles down to our doubles," Smith said. "I feel like we have an excellent chance to do something really big. And this group has a great mentality."
The Lady Red Elephants showed as much on Monday, making short work of first round Class AAAAA tournament foe South Paulding with a 3-0 win (Gainesville also won the other two matches completed after clinching the second round berth) at Longwood Park in Gainesville.
Katherine Wright led the way at No. 1 singles, cruising in a 6-1, 6-1 victory to clinch the first match of the afternoon for the Region 8-AAAAA champion Lady Red Elephants -- which came an anything but a surprise for Smith.
"Katherine just gets the job done," Smith said. "You tell her you need a win and she goes out there and gets it done. She provides some great leadership too. She's very mature; she plays the opponent and figures out what type of game to play quickly."
The Lady Red Elephants followed with a 6-0, 6-1 win for its No. 1 doubles team of Madi Kiser and Paige Patterson and clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-1 win for Haley Frankum at No. 2 singles -- though No. 3 singles Ali Waggoner also won easily, 6-1, 6-0. Gainesville's No. 2 doubles team did go to a tiebreak in the first set but also won in straight sets, as Sally Callahan and Paige Ackerman prevailed 7-6 (7-2), 6-0.
"We definitely expected to win today, playing a fourth seed team in the first round," Smith said. "But playoff tennis is tough. Everybody's good, and you can't go have a bad day, or your season will be over.
"If you do get behind you have to have the mentality that you can't down, or else you'll lose it quick. But this group is good about that -- especially our 1 and 3 singles. They're so tough you can't break them."
That said, Gainesville expects one of its toughest tests so far in the second round against the winner of the Macintosh (No. 2 seed) vs. LaGrange (No. 3 seed) match.
The contest will be played before April 26 -- with Smith hoping to get it set for Thursday back at Longwood Park.
"That's huge to have it here; the kids won't have any jet lag, so to speak, from traveling, and if the weather proves iffy, it's a lot easier to deal with when you're the home team -- but this team deals with everything pretty well," Smith said.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/4/389461/girls-tennis-gainesville-storms-into-second-round-of-state