Stakes are high, heart rates are up, and the R.J. Reynolds High School Girls Tennis team is points away from victory. Playing their biggest rival, Davie County High School, they needed to win the final doubles match to secure a team victory. Fighting a riveting game, junior Noora Hosseinzadeh and senior Hayden Austin, won and ended the match with a 5-4 team victory over Davie.

The RJR Girls Tennis team has pushed themselves hard this fall, putting in the work during the season and in the off-season.

“When they come out the first day of practice, August first, they don’t have to tell me whether they’ve worked in the off-season,” Johnny Highsmith, coach of the girl’s tennis team, said. “I can see it in three minutes. That’s all it takes.”

Leadership is important to the success of a sports team. This year, having a strong set of girls who can take control of the team has helped tremendously.

“Our captains are Ally MacCorkle and May Lewis,” junior Sarah Rhoades Cox said. “They do a good job at getting the team together and encouraging us to play before hard matches. They also give little words of advice before matches or remind us to be in the team or be present. So, they’ve been good at bringing the team together this year.”

The team has fought hard to rise in the conference ranks, with some matches even coming down to the last point.

“We lost to Davie, which is tough because it was so close,” sophomore Elizabeth Kim said. “Then we lost to Reagan, which again, was close. The difference between us being undefeated and where we are now is a matter of a couple of points because we went into tiebreakers that we lost.”

For the first time in three years, the team has beaten their long-time rival and ended their undefeated streak.

“When we beat Davie, they had a thirty-one regular season match game streak that stretched across multiple seasons and we broke that streak,” Cox said. “I’ve never beat Davie the entire time I’ve been at Reynolds. We have had a great team this year.”

With the season almost to a close, the RJR girl’s tennis team has landed third place in the conference. The team faced hardships during the season, but they also made some amazing breakthroughs. The girls ended streaks and beat a long-time rival, setting a standard for the seasons to come. There is only more in store for the future.