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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

The final week of the regular season was utterly predictable for the Davie tennis team, which wiped out East Forsyth and Parkland to post the fourth perfect regular season in nine years.

Davie whipped East Forsyth 8-1 in Kernersville on Oct. 1. All six singles matches were 6-0, 6-0 as Elliot Newsome, Corbin Drum, Bailey Aderhold, Leah Gibson, Kate Chaffin and Casey Cao blazed away. In doubles, Newsome/Chaffin and Ola Leszczuk/Sydney Galloway rolled up 8-1 and 8-2 victories.

Two days later at home, the War Eagles won by the maximum margin. Every singles match was 6-0, 6-0 and all three doubles were 8-0 as Davie made quick work of Parkland. The doubles pairings: Newsome/Abigail Etter, Makayla Nguyen/Maya Carlson and Evie Conlin/Cassidy Eggers.

“We do drills in practice and challenges, and some of them get a little frustrated and will say: ‘Well, I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that,’” said Ferebee, who has piloted Davie to three of the four unbeaten regular seasons. “And I’ll say: ‘Look at who you were going against. These are six of the top 16 players in the conference that you see every single day. Think about where you were eight weeks ago and they’re like: ‘Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s like iron sharpening iron. They get frustrated in practice if they lose a tiebreaker or lose a game, but then they go out and play another school and then they’re like: ‘Practices are harder than this.’”

The run to 14-0 overall and 12-0 in the CPC was as easy as it gets; Davie has outscored the competition 119-7. The Parkland match was Senior Night for Newsome and Etter.

Newsome is a dynamo who has played No. 1 singles throughout her career. She is one of three War Eagles who have yet to lose this season, the others being Drum and Cao.

“One of the things I love about Elliot that I’m going to miss is not only does she want to get better, she wants everyone around her to get better,” Ferebee said. “She doesn’t want it easy. She wants to have to fight day in and day out. She wants Corbin to challenge her, she wants Bailey to get better, she wants the team to be as good as possible. That’s a lot of leadership that you don’t see, but she is all about the team and all about us getting a win, not Elliot getting a win.”

Etter is the consummate teammate. She’s made a mark with the program even though the Parkland match was her season debut and her first action since going 1-1 in doubles as a freshman.

“Everyone sees what Elliott’s done for the program,” Ferebee said. “That’s obvious – she plays court one, she gets the wins, she’s all-conference. That’s what shows up on the stat sheet, but Abigail has absolutely been a master of the stats that don’t show up. She’s been the first one to congratulate her teammates, she’s been the first one to be there if they didn’t win a match. She’s the first one to set practice up. She’s always breaking stuff down. She’s leading the underclassmen. She’s helping them out with life. She’s helping them navigate high school. Elliot’s stats are obvious, but I don’t want anyone to underestimate the importance Abigail has had the last four years. The girls love her and I’m going to miss that a ton next year.”