Quintanilla claims 4th straight Carolina 1A women's singles title

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 7, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Taylor Dilday remembered last year's match with teammate Julissa Quintanilla in the Carolina 1-A Conference singles championship.

Dilday didn't play at a high level.

When the two met again Tuesday afternoon, Dilday gave Quintanilla a stronger test. The junior moved the 2014 state 1-A runner-up around the court and hit several winners.

But Quintanilla answered the challenge.

"I knew that Taylor was a very consistent player, she gets a lot of balls over the net, so I focused on hitting more winners against her instead of keeping it going back and forth, which I lacked a little bit, but came out successful in the end."

Quintanilla (11-0 overall) claimed her fourth consecutive Carolina singles title with a 6-1, 6-1 decision. The top seed dropped just three games in six sets on the afternoon at Herman Park.

Dilday lost just six games in two matches before facing her teammate.

"It's very challenging (to play Julissa), to be honest," Dilday said. "I admire her, I've always wanted to be as good as her in tennis. I know that I always do my best, which to me, that's successful but I never beat her.

"I can't imagine losing to anyone other than her and being happy about it because I know I always do my best when I play her."

Quintanilla and Dilday each clinched in a berth in the N.C. High School Athletic Association eastern regionals. They'll be joined by Rosewood's doubles team of Faith Baker-Shayla Marak, and singles player Keelin Hunter.

Spring Creek's Grace West-Cassie Alphin finished runners-up in doubles.

"I've got mixed reactions because I coached Grace for a number of years," third-year-RHS head coach Alan Cuddington said as he watched the doubles final.

The tandem of Bailey Martin-Katie Smale emerged as Princeton's first-ever qualifiers for the regionals. The duo opened tournament play with a straight-set shutout of Spring Creek's Maygan Jackson-Chloe Davis. They fell to eventual doubles champions Faith Baker-Shayla Marak of Rosewood in the semifinals.

Martin-Smale rebounded to defeat the Eagles' Victoria Hill-Bethany Kirby in the third-place match.

"After they got going and got back into the groove, they had some ups and downs," second-year PHS head coach Christy Klein said. "You've got your reserved one and your outgoing one, and they match well together ... communicate a lot. Katie is more reserved and consistent.

"Bailey is more aggressive, more of an attack player."

Baker-Marak lost just six games on the day and faced West-Alphin the finals. The two opponents were familiar with each other, and Baker-Marak pulled out a tense 6-4 win in the opening set.

They won the second set 6-1.

"I feel like we did really well," Marak said. "We struggled a little bit in the first set. We were trying to figure out how to play them. Once we got that, we did really good.

"(We) just hit the lines better and the corners, and made the girl (Alphin) up front move back. (Winning the doubles title) feels good ... a good way to end my senior year because we've been struggling the past two years."