GOLDSBORO — The Lady Knights’s No. 1 doubles team of Alanna Ludlum and Amber Long tasted their first defeats of the season on Saturday in the state’s Class 2-A Mideast Regionals, but still became the first tennis players from West Bladen to advance to the state championships this week.

The Lady Knights’ duo, seeded No. 3 in the regionals, opened the tournament Friday with a 6-1, 6-1 win over a St. Pauls team and followed it up on Ssaturday with a similar 6-1, 6-1 win over a Clinton team. It was the fourth time this season Ludlum and Long had faced the Lady Dark Horse team.

In the semifinals, the West Bladen duo faced a Bartlett Yancy squad and after dropping a heartbreaker in the first set, 7-6 (7-3) and taking the second 6-4, quickly got behind 3-0 in the deciding set. The Lady Knghts battled back to within 3-2, but Bartlett Yancey took the next three sets to win, 6-2.

“We had our chances in that one, but we were not able to get those breaks in the first set,” West Bladen coach Jeff Atkinson said. “Alanna and Amber played very well and were in the match the entire time.”

After only moments to rest, Ludlum and Long were back on the court facing a daunting task in hopes of claiming a third-place finish — taking on the tournament’s No. 1 seed in Jordan Matthews, who was the 2015 runner-ups.

It didn’t go well.

Jordan Matthews cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win to take third place, but the West Bladen girls, with their fourth-place finish, qualified for the state championships.

“This is the first time in school history that a girl tennis players have gone this far,” Atkinson said. “These girls are having a great season and I think it will be one they can always look back and remember.”

In singles action, West Bladen’s Conner Brisson and Savannah Lee competed in the regionals, but faced tough opponents and could not get out of the first round.

Brisson drew the No. 1 seed and last season’s regionals champion from the Durham School of the Arts and fell by a 6-0, 6-0 score. Lee took on the No. 3 seed and fourth-place finisher last season from Bartlett Yancey and also took a 6-0, 6-0 defeat.

“This region is a tough region to compete in — then, on top of that, you get a bad draw — but I thought it was good experience for Conner and Savannah” Atkinson said. “Both have had outstanding seasons this year going undefeated in regular season play.”

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Volleyball

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West Bladen got 15 combined kills from Raegan Davis and Morgan Schumacher to sweep East Bladen on Saturday in a Four County Conference battle. The Lady Knights won by the scores of 25-13, 25-22 and 25-13.

Davis added three aces to the stat sheet, while Patience Parker had four aces; Jenna Dove had two aces and two kills; Logan Autry had three aces and two kills; and Kathryn Schultz had two solo blocks.

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