PHOTO BY JILL PEREZ
Salem High swept the Region 4D singles championships in Virginia High School League tennis this week with Drew Perez winning the boys’ championship and Claire Rawlins coming out on top for the girls.
Perez, a Spartan junior, is looking to repeat as Class 4 singles champ and he remained undefeated with three wins in the region tournament. Drew beat Jack Boye of Handley High in the semifinal, 6-2, 6-0, then took on a strong opponent in Charlottesville’s Sean Frank in a rematch of last year’s region final. Drew pulled out a 7-5 win in the first set, then put it away with a 6-3 win.
Rawlins beat Katie Frelich of Sherando in her semifinal match, 6-0 and 6-4. Then, in the final, she dominated Gabriela Knight of E.C. Glass, 6-0, 6-0, to win the Region 4D crown.
Both Drew and Claire will open state tournament singles play at Huntington Park in Newport News next weekend. Singles semis are June 13 and the finals are a day later, on Saturday June 14.
Salem’s team and doubles didn’t get out of the region. The Salem doubles team of Perez and Logan Butcher came up one win short of the state. The Spartan duo beat the Handley pair in the semis, 6-2 and 6-0, but lost to the Charlottesville doubles team in a marathon finals match, 6-0, 3-6, 10-7.
The Salem girls doubles team of Rawlins and Caroline Loveday lost to Sherando in the region semifinals, 6-1, 6-0. Sherando went on to win the region, 6-2, 6-1, over Handley.
In team play Salem’s boys upset previously undefeated and top-seeded Jefferson Forest but lost to Blacksburg in the region final, and tennis is one of the few sports in the VHSL where the region runnerup does not advance to state play. Blacksburg advanced with a 5-1 win.
“After upsetting top-seed Jefferson Forest, Salem was reminded about the continuing strength of the Blacksburg tennis program in the regional finals,” said Salem coach Steve Lily. “The Spartans have firmly established themselves at the top echelon of the region. The players practice and improve throughout the year and look forward to having more prospective teammates join them. For the immediate future, we are all rooting for Drew to capture a second state singles championship.”
