MOULTRIE, Ga. – The Colquitt County varsity tennis teams had two matches this week. They split the win against Lowndes on Tuesday and took a double victory on Thursday playing Richmond Hill.

The Packers are now 2-1 in the region.

The Lady Packers are 1-2.

Thursday afternoon the Packers swept 5-0 while the Lady Packers fell just short, losing 2-3 after a tiebreaker game.

Mark Breedlove dominated his match, winning 6-0, in the first two sets.

Bailee Fountain won 6-3, 6-4.

Joshua Scroggins’ first set went long at 7-5, and he took the second 6-1.

Playing doubles, Jack Taunton and Parker Anderson won their first two sets 6-3, 6-2.

Finally, Ty Hurst and Dean Nguyen were the No. 2 doubles team for the Packers. They lost their first set 2-6, but came back winning the second set 6-2. Their tiebreaker set ended 6-3, giving the Packers their shutout victory.

“Today was a good day,” said head coach Mell Wier. “We are a really young team, and we are still figuring it out.”

The Lady Packers played hard, but they were unable to overtake the Vikettes.

“I’m proud of the hard work they put in,” said head coach Amber Day.

Emily Lampman won her first two sets at 6-1 each, securing a point for Colquitt County.

In No. 1 doubles, Odessa Dixon and Candace Moses also won their match, 6-1 in their first set and 6-2 in the second. 

Eva Barnett played No. 1 singles but was unable to win her match. She lost her first two sets, both at 0-6.

Ada Craft also lost her match 3-6, 1-6.

The Lady Packers were sitting 2-2 and it was up to the final doubles team of Jayley Johnson and Laura Gonzales.

The tiebreaker game went into its own tiebreaker after Johnson and Gonzales won their first set 6-2 and lost the second 3-6. In the final game, they lost 1-6.  

When Richmond Hill came to Packer Park on Thursday, Colquitt County came prepared to win, though nature decided to make things interesting.

After about 15 minutes of play, clouds rolled in and the rain started. If it rains too hard, play needs to be stopped for the safety of the athletes.

Tennis is a dangerous sport to play while it’s raining. Not only is the court not designed to be played on wet, but the chance of slipping greatly increases as tennis shoes don’t have appropriate traction for wet surfaces.

“We would pause the match,” said girls head coach Amber Day. “Take pictures of the scoreboards and then finish at a later date. But, to have that happen to the furthest team away? We already rescheduled once to beat the rain. One of us would have to go to the other.”

Because Richmond Hill is one of Colquitt County’s region competitors, the match must be completed, whereas if play was against a non-region team more than likely it wouldn’t be rescheduled.

Thankfully, within about 20 minutes the rain stopped and gameplay resumed.

When the Lady Packers defeated the Wildcats 3-2 they gained their first region win this season.

“I have to compliment Odessa,” said Day. “Her team won our third point, and the match ended with her getting three ace serves in a row.”

Odessa Dixon and Candace Moses won their doubles sets 6-1, 6-4.

Also winning for the Lady Packers were singles players Eva Barnett and Emily Lampman.

Barnett won both her sets at 6-2.

Lampman’s final match scores were 6-0, 6-1.

The other two teams for the Lady Packers, No. 2 singles Ada Craft and No. 2 doubles team of Jayley Johnson and Laura Gonzales, lost their matches after they both went into a tiebreaker in the second set after reaching a score of 6-6.

In tennis, when the score of a set becomes 6-6 the game moves into a 7-point tiebreaker special set. Whoever wins the 7-point set will win the normal set by one point.

Craft was unable to get a win at 6-7(4-7), 0-6.

Johnson and Gonzales lost 3-6, 6-7(4-7).

The Packers defeated the Wildcats 3-1, however the final match had to be paused when the rain decided to return.

All other matches for both the Packers and Lady Packers were already completed when it began to rain again.

Doubles team of Parker Anderson and Jack Taunton were in their tiebreaker set when they got paused at 4-3 advantage Packers. Their first two sets ended 6-2, 5-7.   

“We will leave it unfinished for now unless we need to break a tie for seeding in the region tournament,” said Wier. “We won’t know for about two weeks if we will have to do that.”

Winning for the Packers were all three singles players: Mark Breedlove, Joshua Scroggins and Bailee Fountain.

Breedlove won both his sets in 6-0 shutouts.

Scroggins also won both his sets 6-1, 6-3.

Fountain had to fight for his win when his match went into a tiebreaker. He ended 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Unfortunately, the Packers doubles team of Dean Nguyen and Ty Hurst did not win their match. They lost both their sets 3-6, 2-6.

“We are doing a lot of things right,” said Wier. “But, there is always more to learn.”

Both the Packers and Lady Packers will travel to Valdosta next Tuesday for their final region match.