GREENE COUNTY
The Lake Oconee Academy boys' tennis team played its toughest match of the year last Saturday against Seminole County in the GHSA Class A Division II semifinals, but eventually came out victorious.
Both teams were the No. 1 seeds to come out of their respective regions, and Lake Oconee Academy won the coin flip, so the Titans were able to host the Indians for a competitive match.
Top singles player Cooper Ciavola continued to show his talents on the hard court by sweeping his opponent. He won in straight sets and only allowed Seminole County’s first singles player to win one game out of the 13 they played.
Senior Garrett Payne was even more successful in his match against the Indians’ third singles player. Payne would not drop a game and went on to win 6-0, 6-0 to give the Titans a 2-0 lead.
Lake Oconee Academy would eventually give a match back to Seminole County after the first doubles pairing of Adam Kalmanowicz and Justin Zahler lost a competitive match with the final being 6-7, 2-6.
The Titans needed only one more victory to advance to the state championship, and their second doubles pairing of Wyatt Imhof and Christian Moore were the ones to get it done. The duo would go on to win in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the match.
Second singles player Maddox Cantrell found himself in the toughest battle of the evening, which ended up going to three sets, but before he could continue to grow his lead in the second, the Titans’ second doubles group won their match.
Looking ahead, Lake Oconee Academy will prepare for the state championship match on May 13 at Berry College in Rome.
The Titans will have a chance to win back-to-back state titles for the first time in program history, and will have to defeat the Vikings of Taylor County if they want to be crowned kings of Class A Division II.
Head coach Tom Imhof’s team returned all but one player from last year’s championship team that defeated Telfair County 3-1 in the championship match, so the experience amongst the guys on the team should prove to be beneficial.