Bassett girls tennis team wins second straight Piedmont District championship (2024)

For the second season in a row, the Bassett High School girls tennis team won the Piedmont District championship.

The Bengals defeated Halifax County High School, 6-2, in the PD tournament championship on Thursday at BHS.

The two teams previously shared the PD regular season title after each going 8-1 in district play during the regular season.

Bengals No. 1 Laken Porter, No. 3 Kaitlin Hodges, No. 4 Charity Whitfield, and No. 6 Payton Horsley all picked up singles wins on Thursday. Bassett also won two doubles matches.

“A lot of grit today,” Bassett coach Jennifer Yeaman said of her team’s play. “Halifax is such a solid team and they are hard hitters, so we were playing girls that we have not seen that type of play all year.

“My girls just really stepped up. They played their game, they kept the ball on the court, they played smart. They had to work smarter than just harder. It was really good.”

Even though Bassett came into the season as defending district champs, they lost five of six starters off of last year’s team. Porter, in just her second season of tennis, was the only returning starter, and moved up from No. 5 to the top player this season.

Yeaman said winning another title was “very unexpected this year.”

“It was a big surprise,” she added. “We knew that they had it in them, we just didn’t know if they would put it together and jell.

“We have these drills that we do. We have consistency drills where they have to hit the ball. And when we first started, they were so mad at us. They couldn’t even keep the ball going four times in a row, and they would just get so frustrated. And the other practice we had… as a team, I think we got to 70. So, it was that day, probably halfway through our season that it shifted and they started being like, ‘Oh my goodness, we can do this.’”

The biggest lesson Yeaman has tried to instill in her players this season is placement is more important than power.

“You can’t win if you keep hitting the ball out or in the net. It’s just really focusing on placement,” she said. “They’ve gotten a lot better. They’re still young, but I’m hoping they’ll come out this summer and work hard.”

Yeaman and Bengals coaches agreed this championship meant more given how young the team was and how much work went into this season’s success. She was most proud of them sticking with tennis throughout the spring when so much was going on off the courts.

“It’s hard near the end of the season to keep going because it gets hot and it’s just, it’s hard,” Yeaman said. “There’s just so much going on at the end of the school year. All the other sports just kind of start dying down and it’s like, we’ve got to start ramping up.”

Porter, a senior, and Hodges, a sophom*ore, both finished undefeated in Piedmont District play.

Full results from Thursday’s match are listed below.

Bassett will open play in the Region 3D tournament on Monday when they host Hidden Valley. The match will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Piedmont District Girls Tennis Championship Thursday at Bassett High School

Singles (BHS won 4-2)

Laken Porter (BHS) def. Christina Bruce (HCHS), 6-4, 6-4

Meredith Duffer (HCHS) def. Breanna Greer (BHS) def. 6-2, 6-4

Kaitlin Hodges (BHS) def. Kendall Crowder (HCHS), 6-4, 6-3

Charity Whitfield (BHS) def. Shanell Richardson (HCHS), 6-4, 6-1

Sarah Ruotolo-Sarnataro (HCHS) def. Emily Whitlow (BHS) def. 6-1, 7-5

Payton Horsley (BHS) def. Jenna Perkins (HCHS), 6-0, 6-1

Doubles (BHS won 2-0)

Porter/Greer (BHS) def. Bruce/Richardson (HCHS), 6-0, 6-2

Hodges/Whitfield (BHS) def. Duffer/Crowder (HCHS), NF

Whitlow/Horsley (BHS) def. Ruotolo-Sarnataro/Kadence Gordon (HCHS), 6-2, 6-2