High School Tennis; Can Anyone Top The Vikes?

After a captivating 2007 capped by Kaitlin Burns’ second state singles title, the Hoggard Vikings kicked of the new season with a 6-3 win over Greenville Rose last Wednesday.

Depth doesn’t seem to be an issue for Hoggard’s Coach Gwynn Honeycutt who told the Cape Fear Sports Report, “We only lost our # 4 player from last year, Connie Chen. She was a big factor in our lineup, but Haley Black will be in that spot and is playing well. Our #5 player Chloe Opper is a sophomore and brings a year of experience at #6 last year. Haley Michael will be at #6 this year, a junior with match experience. They both won their matches at Greenville Rose (Greenville played without their strong #2 player also in our match). Right now the plan is for Kaitlin and Maggie to play doubles in the post season, and strong # 3 player sophomore Elizabeth Hodges to go in singles. Soph. Erica Linett moved up from the JV team to the #7 spot, along with Jr. Margaret Gresham at #8. We also have newcomer from Atlanta, sophomore Barrett Zurbruegg, at #9, along with freshman Caitlin Neal, and Jessica Myers, who are on the JV team right now, but have potential to move up quickly.”

This week, conference play starts; the Vikings play at New Hanover on Tuesday and then host West Brunswick on Thursday. The Wildcats enter the week 0-2 after suffering losses to Chapel Hill and Terry Sanford in a tightly contested match.

Ashley begins their season this week with a barrage of matches. On Tuesday they host Laney (which finished the ‘07 regular season with a 11-4 mark), Wednesday host CFA, and then travel to Jacksonville on Thursday.

-- Jesse Jones, CAPE FEAR SPORTS REPORT