Golden Falcons net 2nd ECC win of season

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 22, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Summer Pennington continues to search for the right pieces to put Charles B. Aycock in contention for a regular-season conference championship and a dual-team tennis playoff berth.

John Fonvielle needs some freshmen.

The Golden Falcons, who return four starters from last season, dropped just a total of four games on six singles courts and cruised to a 9-0 victory over the Saints on a sultry Thursday afternoon. Aycock remained unbeaten in two Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference outings this season.

It was Southern Wayne's league opener.

"I think we actually played pretty well today," Pennington said. "(We're) a solid team this year, it's just a matter of where to put everyone because we are really very similar all the way down the lineup.

"Everybody played with intensity (and) the intention to go out there and win every point."

As the heat index crept toward triple digits, the county rivals smacked balls at each other as if it was a midseason match. The much-improved Saints (0-2 overall, 0-1 ECC) forced several deuce points on each court, but couldn't close out the game.

The Golden Falcons, instead, consistently kept balls in play and capitalized on unforced errors.

Aycock's Casie Belom, Sabrina Johnson and Emmie Collins each posted a shutout against their respective singles opponent. Second-seeded Cassidy Coerver and fourth-seeded Kassidy Pitchford each lost one game.

Top-seeded Ashton Walker, the lone senior for either team, handed Southern Wayne junior Hope Jones a 6-1, 6-1 defeat. It was a matchup of two east regional qualifiers from 2013.

"The bottom of the lineup is different this year, so we're trying to find out who to play there and how to get some wins there," Pennington said.

The tandems of Walker-Pitchford, Coerver-Belom and Haley Creech-Meredith Jones completed the overall shutout in doubles action. Aycock improved to 27-0 all-time against Southern Wayne.

The Saints return their most-experienced team during Fonvielle's tenure as head coach. Jones is joined by juniors Alli Barrow and Brooke Kornegay, and sophomore Stephanie Gonzalez. Sophomores Katelyn Kelly and Victoria Deen round out the starting six.

Fonvielle does not have any seniors or freshmen on his roster, but he expects that to change when school begins Monday.

"I've talked to some freshmen and they said they're coming out once school starts," Fonvielle said.