Deatherage withdraws from FHSAA tourney
A premier player was absent but Orlando area teams had success on Day 1 of the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 1A state tennis championships in Seminole County on Monday.
Geneva school sophomore Mary Boyce Deatherage, the Orlando Sentinel girls player of the year in 2021, withdrew from the tournament on Sunday because she was competing in an International Tennis Federation 18-and-under tournament in Delray Beach.
Deatherage, 16, won three matches in qualifying to reach the 64-player main draw in the J3 Delray Beach ITF event. She defeated Ava Bruno of New York, another 16-year-old, 6-2, 6-2, on Monday to advance to the round of 32.
Deatherage’s mother, Katie, responded to the Sentinel with a message that said in part, “With a chance to earn points in the ITF system and move up in the international junior ranking list, a list that is used for major junior events, she made the difficult decision to withdraw from the state individual high school bracket. Unfortunately, she was not able to be in two places on the same day.”
In boys state play, Trinity Prep blanked previously unbeaten Berkeley Prep of Tampa 4-0 to advance to Tuesday’s team semifinal round. Nathaniel Cohen-Neamie won his No. 1 singles match and teamed with Alexander Wang to win the No. 1 doubles line for the Saints. Ben Demetriades and Thomas Garcia added a No. 2 doubles win via a 10-point tiebreaker after splitting sets.
Trinity Prep, in a boys final four for the first time, according to coach Gary Needelman, will take on Bradenton St. Stephens on Tuesday at Red Bug Lake Park in Casselberry.
Circle Christian junior Ben Moore moved to the individual singles bracket semifinal with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against Logan Speyer of The First Academy.
And two young Geneva standouts — eighth-grader Noble Renfrow and ninth-grader Rafael Stahl — remained unbeaten in boys doubles with a 6-1, 6-1 victory against a Tampa Brooks-DeBartolo tandem.
“They’ve both improved so much from last year to now, and they complement each other really well as a team,” Geneva coach Luke Russo said as he watched the win.
The First Academy’s region title girls team lost 5-1 against Tampa Berkeley. The Royals’ point came at No. 1 doubles where sophomore twins Reagan Parker and Reese Parker won in a third-set tiebreaker. Reagan lost her No. 1 singles match in another tiebreaker match vs. Berkeley’s Ella Pogue.
South Lake’s Candela Martin was the only area player to celebrate a victory in the 3A tournament at Sanlando Park. She won her opening singles match in a tiebreaker and then rolled past Edgewater’s Grace Benson 6-0, 6-0.