Katrina Walton
Contributor
The Aucilla Christian Academy (ACA) Warrior tennis team has finished their regular season, with one of the best records in school history. Both the girls and boys teams turned in winning seasons. The girls team ended the regular season with an impressive 13-2 mark, while the boys finished with a winning 8-7 record.
In high school tennis, each individual member of the team challenges for their spots and those pairs playing in doubles are chosen by the coach and then they challenge for #1 and #2 places. During competition, each team's number one boy will play the opposing team's number one boy. The two number two boys will play in singles competition, and so on. The same holds true with doubles competition.
Individually, the boys singles records were: Brewster Bass/3-7, Matthew Arceneaux/6-4, Joey Davis/5-5, Will Sullivan/5-5, Ethan Bass/7-1, Hunter Hughes/5-2, Kolton Gramling/3-1 and Harper Davis/1-2. The number one boys doubles team of Brewster Bass and Ethan Bass had a record of 3-7. The number two doubles team of Arceneaux and Davis had a record of 8-2.
For the girls, the individual records were: Olivia Walton/8-1, Riley Hamrick/7-3, Jenna Lindsey/8-2, Caroline Taylor/7-3, Laney Cruce/5-4, Lauchlin Fagile/3-0 and Morgan McNeill/2-4. The number one girls doubles team of Walton and Lindsey had a record of 9-1. The number two girls doubles team of Hamrick and Taylor had an undefeated record of 10-0.
The Warriors capped off their 2021 season with both the boys and girls teams advancing into the Class 1A Region One Tournament. For the first time in school history, the girls team won the District Championship, while the boys team was the District Runner-Up. Another record this tennis team made was each player for individual singles made it to the finals in the district tournament, which according to ACA Head Tennis Coach Katrina Walton, is extremely rare. Individually, the ACA Girls #1 doubles team of Walton and Lindsey took first place during the district tournament which concluded on Saturday, April 17 at Winthrop Park, in Tallahassee. As a result of their first place win in the district tournament, the doubles pair of Walton and Lindsey were able to advance straight to the state tournament. Hamrick and Taylor also won their #2 doubles spot for the championship match. Girls’ number three, Lindsey; girls' number four, Taylor and girls' number five, Cruce also won their individual district singles titles. Sullivan won his #4 singles.
In the regional tournament semifinal, held on Tuesday, April 20, the ACA boys team was defeated by Pensacola Christian. The girls team was defeated by Maclay School, from Tallahassee.
In the state tournament, the girls doubles team of Walton and Lindsey were defeated by the team of Alata and Brownlee, from Dover, Fla., 6-2, 6-1.
“We are very proud of our Warriors,” said Coach Walton.