Colquitt County Lady Packer tennis team knocked out of playoffs

Published 1:00 pm Thursday, April 27, 2023

MOULTRIE — After making it into the sweet 16 round of the region playoffs, the Colquitt County Lady Packers tennis team lost 0-3 against Marietta, effectively ending their 2022-23 season.

“We lost the first two points quickly but we held our own in the last three matches,” said head coach Amber Day.

Those first two matches were played by No. 1 singles, Eva Barnett, and No. 2 doubles, Carolyne Turner and Arlin Smith.

Barnett lost her sets 2-6, 3-6.

For the doubles team of Turner and Smith, this was their first time playing together in competition. In fact, the duo was only able to have one practice together before the match.

Smith is a freshman player and this match was her varsity debut.

They lost their sets 2-6, 1-6.

Turner’s usual partner, Jayley Johnson, was unable to participate in the tournament.

All three of the remaining matches went into a tiebreaker set.

Ada Craft, playing No. 2 singles, was at 3-6, 6-4, 4-3 when she got pulled.

Lampman had very similar sets at 6-3, 4-6, 4-3 when her match stopped.

Their matches both ended early because after the No. 1 doubles team of Odessa Dixon and Candace Moses lost their match 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 it was impossible for the Lady Packers to come back and claim victory.

“I am proud of the way the girls kept going in the playoffs,” said Day. “To play that close of a match against a strong Atlanta team like Marietta and bring it down to one match says a lot about the potential we have for the next few years. I’m excited to see where we can go.”

The 2023-24 season will have five veteran Lady Packer varsity players returning as well as several seasoned JV players coming up.