Eagles bring back women’s tennis program, win first match | Sports

A banner still hangs prominently above the tennis complex at Eastern Alamance High School – a sign to anyone who comes around letting them know that an outstanding women’s tennis team played on those courts not that long ago. 

The tribute to the 2019 Eastern Alamance High School women’s tennis team, which won the school’s first-ever conference championship and secured a home match in the NCHSAA 3A state team playoffs, has been the only sign in recent years that the Eagles have had a women’s tennis team.

For the past couple of years those courts have sat largely untouched, as the Eagles went through a period without having a women’s tennis team. 

The Eagles struggled to recruit enough players to play a full team schedule following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Combined with the retirement of of longtime former head coach Tom Booth after the 2021 spring season, and the program went into dormancy for a couple years. 

Fortunately for those interested in playing women’s tennis at Eastern Alamance, new EAHS head coach Brandy Lambert has brought the Eagles back. Lambert successfully attracted five players to rejuvenate the EAHS women’s tennis program this fall – juniors Jayci White and Areli Silvia-Flores, sophomore Madison Drewery, and freshmen Camila Rosa and Ryan Tanner. 

Whlle the team has felt some growing pains in its return to the court this fall, falling in each of its first six team matches, the Eagles are showing signs of promise, as they won their final match of the regular season. 

And with all five players returning in 2024, the team could be poised to be competitive in many of their Central Conference matches in the coming years. 

Rosa, the team’s No. 1 singles player, won a pair of singles matches against Person County’s Annie Adcock (8-3) on September 11, and against Southern Alamance’s Madalyn Corbett 6-2, 6-2 on September 13. EAHS also won a second singles match against Person County. 

On October 4, the Eagles brought it all together for their first win since the 2021 delayed spring season – a hard-fought 5-4 win over Central Conference rival Person County. 

After Rosa handled Annie Adcock for a second time this fall – this time by a 6-0, 6-3 score – Drewery got the Eagles another win, as she defeated Danni Brown 1-6, 7-5, 6-0 in the No. 2 singles match. Tanner kept the momentum going for the Eagles as she knocked off Maria Scotti Dubbusco 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 3 singles match. 

The Eagles also picked up wins in the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches, as Rosa and Drewery beat Adcock and Brown by a 6-1 score, and Tanner and Areli Silva-Flores defeated Amaya Hargrove and Scotti Dubbusco by a narrow 8-6 score, which secured the slim victory for the Eagles. 

The Eagles wind down their season this week. Following road matches Monday and Tuesday at Southern Alamance and Orange, EAHS will travel to the Burlington Tennis Center on Wednesday for the Central Conference 3A Tournament.