PREP GIRLS' TENNIS: Goldsboro cruises past Eastern Wayne

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 16, 2018 5:51 AM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

Grace Boros needed to breathe.

Amelia Dunmire had to regroup.

And each managed to cobble out a come-from-behind singles victory for their respective girls' tennis team on a hot, humid, breezy Wednesday afternoon in New Hope.

Goldsboro claimed the overall win, 7-2, over county rival Eastern Wayne.

A returning state qualifier, Boros trailed 3-2 in the opening set.

"Sometimes when I'm a little bit nervous, I hold my breath," Boros said. "So, I had to tell myself 'breathe' and I was right back at it. That simple."

The senior broke back to grab a 4-3 lead and took the set 6-3.

Boros rolled 6-0 in the second set.

"I got into my groove, my comfortable space," Boros said.

The Cougars, who lost five seniors off last year's team, sealed the outcome in singles.

Third-seeded Crystal Golden defeated the Warriors' Ava Bowen 6-4, 6-3. Fourth-seeded Caitlyn Zawadski stopped EW's Sarah Underwood 6-3, 6-2.

Fellow Cougars Megan Kirby and Kourtni Gerken, the Nos. 5 and 6 seeds, respectively, dropped just two games between them. Kirby toppled Makaila Colebrook 6-0, 6-1, while Gerken handled Brynae Wade by the same score.

Dunmire moved the ball, kept her unforced errors to a minimum and cruised past the Cougars' Rachael Johnson 6-1 in the first set.

Johnson seized a tension-filled second set, 6-4.

"When it came to the second set, it was like 'oh, I got the first set. I can win,'" Dunmire said. "I got overconfident."

Johnson ripped consecutive forehand winners in the back right corner and capitalized on a forehand error to build a lead 3-1 in the 10-point, super tiebreaker.

Dunmire tied the set at 4-all and 7-all.

"It got seven-all and I was like 'if I can get one more [point], then I only need two more,'" Dunmire said.

She got three.

Two unforced errors and a double fault on match point gave the second-seeded Johnson a 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (7) win.

"I think that's the most stressful match I've ever played," Dunmire said. "It just kept going back and forth in the tiebreaker, so I was really scared."

Goldsboro (2-0 overall) won two of three doubles.

The top-seeded tandem of Boros-Johnson beat Dunmire-Ava Bowen 8-2, while the No. 3 duo of Kirby-Gerken turned back Colebrook-Wade 8-2.

The Warriors' No. 2 doubles of Stratton-Underwood registered an 8-3 win over the Cougars' Navya Dixit-Zawadzki. Dixit filled in for Golden, who could not play due to illness.