The Clinton Dark Horses tennis team, with its exceptional play this year, was fortunate enough to have three of their players compete in the 2A State Individual Championship. Playing at the Cary Tennis center this past weekend the Horses did well, but fell short of the ultimate reward.
The three athletes that the made trip to the championship were East Central Conference singles champion and East Regional runner-up Cooper Brewen. Joining him were teammates, East Central Conference and East Regional doubles champions, Peter Darden and Camden Thompson.
Brewen, playing in singles again, faced off against Cal Baruch of Carrboro for his opening match. However, he wouldn’t find success this time around, falling 7-5 and 6-1.
Darden and Thompson wouldn’t be denied a win in their first matchup. Going against Andrew Paris and Daniel Lu, from the School of Science and Math, Clinton dominated, 6-2, 6-2.
This moved them to the quarterfinals, where their journey was cut short. Losing to the Forbush pair of Matt Wilhelm and Lance Kennedy, it wasn’t a close match. Darden and Thompson went down pretty convincing in both sets 6-0 and 6-3.
While the loss was undesired, head coach Robert Jones praised the three players for their achievement and said the duo of Darden and Thompson accomplished something not done by the Dark Horses in quite some time.
“It was the first victory in many years at the state individual tournament by a Clinton team or player,” reported Jones.
With these loses, Clinton as a team still remained alive the state dual team quarterfinals and were to face off against North Lenoir on Monday, playing host once again. See full results at clintonnc.com.