The Greenwood High School girls’ and boys’ tennis teams traveled to Alma the Tuesday after Labor Day to open the second half of their season against the Airedales. It’s the first of five regular season matches remaining, and the final road match this month before the conference tournament September 27-28 at Russellville. The state tournament will be held October 11-12. Results from Tuesday’s matches at Alma were not available.
Greenwood’s last four matches over the next two weeks will be played at home on the community courts adjacent to the GHS campus. The two squads are led by second-year head coach Dexter Pearcy, assisted by former head coach and longtime volunteer Dr. Ken Hamilton.
In recent action before Labor Day, Greenwood traveled to Russellville on August 24th to take on both the Cyclones and the Bombers of Mountain Home in a three-team match. Overall, the GHS girls and boys went 7-9, breaking even with Mountain Home, 4-4, while falling to Russellville, 3-5. The GHS boys went 4-4 overall while the Lady Bulldogs went 3-5.
In individual results against Mountain Home, Mackenzie Cannon lost her singles match, 0-6, while Greenwood’s Rebecca Harris won her match, 6-1. In doubles play the Lady Bulldogs split their two matches. Chaise Hanna and Isabella King lost their match, 2-6, while the duo of Harper Berg and Lydiah Belue won their match, 6-1.
In boys’ play against the Bombers, J.J. Acosta won his singles match, 7-5, and teammate Brendon Hoskyn also won his match, 6-1. In doubles play Greenwood’s Grayson Vaughn and Alex Chanthavong lost, 1-6, while the GHS duo of Eason Lin and Alex Schaefer lost their match, 3-6.
Against Russellville, Greenwood junior Mackenzie Cannon lost her singles match, 2-6, and senior Rebecca Harris lost, 1-6. In doubles action, senior Chaise Hanna and sophomore Isabella King lost, 0-6, while teammates Harper Berg, a freshman, and sophomore Lydiah Belue paired to win their match, 6-4.
The GHS boys split their four matches against the Cyclones. In singles play Greenwood sophomore J.J. Acosta lost, 4-6, and junior Brendon Hoskyn won, 6-2. In doubles play, junior Grayson Vaughn and senior Alex Chanthavong won, 6-2, while the freshmen duo of Eason Lin and Alex Schaefer lost their match, 5-7.
The match scheduled at Van Buren on August 30th was rained out, but the following day both Greenwood teams returned to Russellville, this time on the campus of Arkansas Tech University, to take on both Greenbrier and Vilonia in another three-team match. Overall, Greenwood split the 16 matches evenly, going 8-8, with the girls (5-3) holding a slight edge over the boys (3-5).
Against the Greenbrier Lady Panthers, Greenwood won both of its singles matches by convincing margins. Mackenzie Cannon won, 8-0, and Rebecca Harris won, 8-2. The Lady Bulldogs split their two doubles matches with the duo of Hanna and King falling, 4-8, while the team of Berg and Belue won, 8-6.
In boys’ play against the Panthers, Greenwood’s Grayson Vaughn won his singles match, 8-2, while teammate Alex Chanthavong lost, 4-8. The team of Acosta and Hoskyn won their doubles match, 8-3, while partners Eason Lin and Alex Schaefer lost their match, 2-8.
Against the Lady Eagles of Vilonia, the GHS girls were shutout in both of their singles matches, with Cannon and Harris each losing by identical 0-8 scores. Ironically, the Greenwood duo of Hanna and King won their doubles match by the same score, 8-0. Harper Berg and Lydiah Belue also teamed to win, 8-4.
For the GHS boys, Vaughn and Chanthavong also lost by identical scores in very tight singles matches. Each player fell in a tiebreaker, 8-8 (4-7). In doubles play the duo of Acosta and Hoskyn won, 8-2, while the team of Line and Schaefer lost, 2-8.