The Davie High School women’s tennis team had an outstanding season, though this outcome was far from certain as workouts began this past summer. Going into this season, the team graduated four of their starters, which made some members nervous until they started their summer workouts. Some of the team were eager to see how the freshman class would perform. Junior Elliot Newsome talked to women’s tennis coach Collin Ferebee and expressed her expectations for the season.

“I expected the team to work as hard and put in the same amount of effort as before.”

The top six players were announced on August 16th at the scrimmage against Elkin. These players included top seed Elliot Newsome, 2nd seed Corbin Drum, 3rd seed Bailey Aderhold, 4th seed Leah Gibson, 5th seed Ali Cranfill, and 6th seed Gabby Thompson. These six players led the women’s tennis team all year. The season truly started with the first official match at Reynolds, which happened to be the closest match of the year with Newsome, Drum, Aderhold, and Cao winning their matches, Cao being the sub for Cranfill, who was out with an injury. Yet they cannot win with just this. Newsome and Aderhold went on to win their doubles match as well, making Davie win this match against Reynolds. The team then went on to East Forsyth to break their own record of 29 wins to 30 wins in a row. 

Next, they went on to play outside of their conference teams against Forbush, where they again won to make their record so far 3-0. The 3-0 Davie women’s tennis team then went on to play at Reagan, a team that has dominated in past years. Davie impressively won this match 7-0. It was at this point that the team realized they had a real shot at doing well this season in the conference. Davie went on to win their next three matches by quite a lot, even beating Parkland and Glenn by 9-0. These three matches include Mount Tabor, Parkland, and Glenn. 

Unfortunately, the rematch against Reynolds is where the team experienced a setback. Newsome and Cao (who was subbing in for Cranfill) won their singles matches, which is 2 out of the 6 singles matches that occurred. For Davie to emerge triumphant, it all came down to doubles where Aderhold and Newsome won as the 1st seed. Drum and Gibson won their match as well as the 2nd seed in doubles. Thompson and Cranfill put up a fight in their doubles match, but ultimately Davie lost this match, ending their streak of 35 consecutive conference wins. 

But this was not yet the end of the season, and the team still had many more matches left to win. Davie redeemed themselves at their next match at East Forsyth, winning by an outstanding 9-0. They moved on to their first official home match against Reagan where they again had another win. Yet again, Davie had an outstanding win against Mount Tabor, winning 9-0. In the next match, Davie faced off against their cross-town rivals, the West Forsyth Titans. They had to postpone their match because on the scheduled day there was inclement weather and they had to postpone the whole match to another day. Davie came out beating the rivals 8-1. Davie went on to have a swift win against Parkland 8-1. 

Before even playing Glenn as their last match of the season, Davie had become the CPC champions but was still tied with Reynolds and Reagan. If they won their match against Glenn, they would become the sole CPC champions for the third year in a row, which they did accomplish by beating Glenn 9 to 0, making them officially the 2023 “threepeat” CPC champions. 

For senior Olivia Swisher, who joined the team during her sophomore year, the team’s success has been rewarding to experience.

“This team has changed a lot since I’ve been on the team,” Swisher says. “Winning again for the third time in a row has been fun. This has been one of the best seasons we’ve had since I joined. It has developed a lot.”

The Post-Season Battle

Yet this was not the true end for Davie; they were still left with the CPC tournament at Reynolds. The Davie players had hard decisions to make when thinking about what to do at the tournament after the seedings came out. Elliot Newsome was seeded 2nd in the singles bracket, Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold were seeded 4th in the doubles bracket, Leah Gibson was not seeded, and neither were doubles partners Ali Cranfill and Gabby Thompson. Elliot Newsome had chosen to do singles. Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold decided to take a chance and become doubles partners for the first time ever. Leah Gibson had also chosen to do singles. Ali Cranfill and Gabby Thompson decided to pair up and play doubles for the last time ever, both being seniors. 2nd seed Corbin Drum notes that the day of the conference tournament takes on a much different feel from regular-season match-ups. 

“The tournament is hard because it is single elimination, and once you get past the first round, every team is pretty good.”

The morning of the tournament starts at 7: 45 for these players. There are 16 singles and 16 doubles teams to start. Everyone except the senior duo Ali Cranfill and Gabby Thompson won their first round. Despite this loss, though, Thompson expresses pride in the team’s success.

“I may not be going to regionals, but it doesn’t hurt me that I lost,” Thompson says. “I’m just glad we got here and to make more memories.” She remembered how the team was not in the conference during her freshman year and went on to become three-time conference champions. For Thompson, the most important thing was making memories and having fun. 

Moving to the second round, Elliot Newsome got another fly-by win, but unfortunately, Leah Gibson was unable to win her match. Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold were able to get revenge for Cranfill and Thompson by beating the Reynolds doubles team that had taken out their teammates in the first round. 

Moving to the third round, we are left with Elliot Newsome in singles, who beat out the 4th seed from West Forsyth. Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold had their most difficult task at hand coming into the third round. These doubles partners played the first-seed doubles team in the tournament from Reagan. Drum and Aderhold started out losing the first set 3-6 and were down 0-3 starting out the second set, but during their break, there was a change in momentum. Drum and Aderhold came back excited and were slowly but surely making their comeback. They won that set 7-5. Then came the tiebreaker, which Drum and Aderhold ended up winning 10-8. 

Moving into the championship round, Elliot Newsome gave a hard fight and lost against the first seed in the tournament, Sam McEachran. Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold were then in the championship round against the 2nd seed in the tournament, which they won 6-2 and 6-4. Overall, Davie did exceptionally well in the CPC tournament. Everyone put in their best effort, and it really showed with their day not yet ending until 5 p.m. Elliot Newsome and doubles partners Corbin Drum and Bailey Aderhold qualified for regionals, meaning the season was still not yet done for Davie. 

Moving on to regionals, only 3 out of the overall 20 of Davie’s players remained. This exciting and nerve-racking day started at 8:40 a.m. for Newsome, Drum, and Aderhold. Newsome played first, quickly winning in this first round. Drum and Aderhold won their nearly 4-hour-long match. Moving on to the second round, Newsome put up a tough fight against the first seed in the tournament but ultimately couldn’t make it through to the third round. Doubles partners Drum and Aderhold also just fell short of making it to the third round. All three players were just one match shy of qualifying for states. Yet these three players were the only ones from the Central Piedmont Conference to make it past the first round, and this alone was an impressive accomplishment. 

The talented young women of the women’s tennis team had one of Davie’s best seasons yet, with only one loss in the regular season and an excellent performance from everyone in the conference and regional tournaments. These young women worked extremely hard this season and deserve much recognition. We can expect that they will continue to perform extremely well in the coming years. 

Season Stats

• 8/21: @ Rj Reynolds (5-4) W
• 8/23: @ East Forsyth (7-2) W
• 8/24: @ Forbush (5-0) W
• 8/28: @ Reagan (7-0) W
• 8/30: @ Mount Tabor (8-1) W
• 9/7: @ Parkland (9-0) W
• 9/11: @ Glenn (9-0) W
• 9/13: Rj Reynolds (4-5) L
• 9/18: East Forsyth (9-0) W
• 9/20: Reagan (6-3) W
• 9/25: Mount Tabor (9-0) W
• 9/27: West Forsyth (8-1) W
• 9/28: @ West Forsyth (8-1)  W
• 10/2: Parkland (8-1) W
• 10/4: Glenn (9-0) W
• 10/10: CPC Tournament: 1st of 8
• 10/18: Southeast Guilford (5-1) L

Bethany Jacobs contributed to this article