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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Davie tennis failed to send anyone to the state tournament, but coach Collin Ferebee was comforted by the fact his Midwest Regional participants battled as hard as they could.
Elliot Newsome and the doubles teams of Bailey Aderhold/Corbin Drum and Casey Cao/Kate Chaffin all went 1-1, each falling one win short of clinching a top-four finish and earning state berths.
The regional was held at Northwest Guilford on Oct. 18-19.
“It went pretty well overall when you look at how the tournament ended,” Ferebee said. “They all won in the first round, which is a huge achievement to have five people off one team make the final 32 of the state.”
Newsome, a senior who won the CPC singles title, won 6-0, 6-1 before losing 7-5, 6-3. The first-round win made her 19-0 on the season. The streak ended in the quarterfinals. What happened? The opponent from Grimsley is just really good.
“Elliot lost in a tight two-setter to a girl who finished fourth in the tournament,” Ferebee said. “Obviously, I wanted all five to make the state, but especially Elliot with it being her senior year. The girl she played from Grimsley is good – there is no doubt about it. And Elliot did not play badly. We talked this morning and she said: ‘I was frustrated in the moment, but I played well. Sometimes there’s just another player that’s better. That is disappointing to have to accept, but I did what I could.’ No one likes losing, but it was a very mature response in handling it.”
Aderhold and Drum were 13-0 in doubles after a 6-1, 7-6 victory in the first round. The two-time CPC doubles champions came painfully close to advancing to the semifinals, losing 7-6, 6-7, 3-6.
“Corbin and Bailey played an excellent match and lost in a tight set to the Greater Metro 4-A champions who ended up finishing second in the tournament,” Ferebee said. “There were some points they wish they could have back, but they kept fighting until the end. That Cox Mill team won their conference tournament. It was probably a two-and-a-half-hour match. I said: ‘I know you’re disappointed in how it ended, but you both have played at a high level in doubles and you both should be very proud.’”
Cao/Chaffin won 7-6, 6-3 before losing 6-0, 6-1. They finished with an 11-2 record.
“Kate made the second round of regional as a freshman,” he said. “Casey has improved from being a double-digit seed to making the second round of regional as a junior.”