Hartsville Netters defeat Darlington
Pictured above is the 2023 Hartsville High Varsity Girls Tennis Team led by Head Coach Dusty Braddock (far left), and (in no order) Mckenna Martin, Gray Bryan, Jade Brockington, Amelia, Flippin, Grace Ford, Samari Johnson, Kendall Thomas, Kadija Russell, Isabel Smith, Lindsay Waldrop. PHOTO BY WILL JOHNSON
Pictured above is the 2023 Darlington High School Varsity Girls Tennis Team which new head coach Henry Curry (Far right) leads. He comes to Darlington from Mcbee High School where he was an Assistant head coach. Picture (in no order) Assistant coach Ellen Berry, Team manager Andre Thomas, Autumn Coker, Sabrina Lancaster, Ali Rose Logan, Rihanna Loomis, Kaitlin McIver, Lilly Anne Mozingo, Kinzley Surawski, Mariah Thomas. PHOTO BY WILL JOHNSON
By Don Gearhart
The first set between the Hartsville Lady Red Foxes and the Darlington Lady Falcons featured five ties and four lead changes. Darlington got the early edge only be to be tied at 5-5. The back-and-forth set stayed close with the Lady Falcons leading 12-9. That is when Karlie Floridia recorded three straight service aces to draw the teams even at 12-12. Hartsville went ahead 13-12 and never trailed the remainder of the set to take a 25-22 first set victory with the last point won via a service error. Floridia led the attack with four kills while Akeeya Lucas chipped in with three kills. Natalie O’Neal had six assists in support.
Hartsville led the entire second set and went ahead by as much as 15-9 before Darlington stormed back to make it a close contest. The Lady Falcons got within reach at 18-17 and 24-23 but could not get any closer. The second set was filled with a lot of unforced errors on both sides with Hartsville only recording seven kills and one service ace in the 25-23 win. Floridia again recorded four kills and Myah Harvey had two for the Lady Red Foxes. Adianna Rebollar had three assists and O’Neal chipped in with two.
In the third set, again started strong building leads of 7-3 and 9-5. Darlington struck back to close the gap to 16-13 before Hartsville jumped out to a 23-16 advantage. Some sloppy play down the stretch enabled Darlington to claw back in and make it respectable but ultimately lost set and match via a 25-21 score. Floridia again led the offense with three kills while Lily Cabrera at the libero position was stellar in the dig department as well as accounting for two service aces. Cayla Howard had three kills for Darlington.