Last Tuesday and Wednesday, the GISA State Individual Tournament was held at the John Drew Smith tennis center in Macon. FA team members who qualified to play in the tournament were Merrill Been (Region Girls Singles Champion), Adam Elsharkawi (Region Boys Singles Champion), Jaxson Grotz and Grant Offner (Region Boys Doubles Champions), Kate Walbridge (Region Girls Singles Runner-Up), Andrew Kaminer and Trey Walbridge (Region Boys Doubles Runners-Ups), and Ali Brown-Winans (Regions fourth position in Girls Singles).
The GISA put together a very strong tournament; the FA players did a great job competing against the state's best players!
Merrill Been had Frederica's top result from the tournament finishing as AAA State Girls Singles Runner-Up with All-State Honors. Merrill won three great matches, before falling to last year's state champion, Erin McGrath. Merrill did a great job against Erin; she was toe to toe with her most of the match. It is the highest finish for a girls singles player since FA moved into GISA's AAA classification.
Ali Brown-Winans also had a great tournament finishing the tournament with All-State honors and top four in the state. Ali won against her first two opponents, Libby Carroll from Valwood and Sophie Gregory of Holy Spirit before losing to her teammate Merrill.
Singles Player Kate Walbridge won her first match against Greyson Smith of Tiftarea before playing eventual state champion, Erin McGrath.
The Boys who qualified ran into some tough first-round opponents. Adam Elsharkawi lost to two-time all-state player Taylor Huffman of Brookwood. The Doubles team of Jaxson Grotz and Grant Offner fell to a team from Tiftarea and the Boys team of Andrew Kaminer and Trey Walbridge lost to a team from Valwood. Unfortunately, many of the teams combined singles players to play doubles at state, which made for a difficult doubles draw.
Overall, everyone played well and it was a fun event. Ending the tournament with two players with All-State Honors and for Merrill to have a runner-up finish was a great ending to her incredible singles career at FA!
Go Knights!
Coach Brian Wyrick