Written by Amanda Judson – On the Plank Staff Reporter

On Friday, March 12, the varsity boys and the varsity girls tennis teams headed off to their annual tournament at LaGrange College. After some fierce competition, the girls placed second, and the boys crushed the competition with a first-place win.

The varsity girl’s tennis team ended the tournament as runner-up after a very tough fight. The team started off the LaGrange Invitational by winning 4-1 against Sequoyah High School. The next school they took on was Lumpkin High School. They defeated Lumpkin with a score of 4-1. The third and final match-up was against Coffee High School. The players took a loss of 1-4, which secured their place as second overall for division three of the tournament.

Piper Pittman, Allatoona High School line two doubles player, discussed the loss of the tournament by saying, “Even though the end result was not what we had hoped, there’s always next year! The match against Coffee County challenged all of our lines and put us to the test. At the end of the day, we tried the best we could, and we have another whole year to only get better from here, and I believe in our team.” The team is using this loss as motivation to get stronger and better together.

The varsity boys tennis team took the competition by storm, not losing a single match. They played in division three against three high schools: Vidalia, Union Grove, and Greenbriar. The team won all fifteen of the matches they played.  Allatoona line 1 singles player Aydan Grossman talked about his experience with the tournament by saying, “After not having the tournament last year, we felt as a team we could really win it. We went in with high confidence and ended up going undefeated without losing a match the entire weekend.” Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the tournament was canceled the year prior. The players went out this year more determined than ever to come out on top. The coach of the Allatoona team, Raef Williams, describes the players as very “strong” and extremely “hungry for success”. This was proven true through the outcome of the tournament.

Overall, both the boys and the girls varsity tennis teams put everything that they had into the LaGrange Invitational Tournament. The determination and grit that the players showed during the tournament were outstanding, and they are all eager to keep thriving.