THOMASVILLE- The Thomasville Lady Dogs and Bulldogs tennis teams were back on the court this week, taking on Valdosta. 

According to Coach Kelli Grave De Peralta, this year’s team still has quite a few seniors, despite losing a handful last year. 

Last week’s match was the third match to date, but Grave De Peralta said the team has been pretty competitive so far. 

“Last week we played Worth County,” she said. “Our girls had a tough loss, but it was a lot closer than the 0-5 score reflects. They’ve always been a really good team in the past, and it was just a great match to get us ready.” 

Grave De Peralta went on to say that the Bulldogs won 4-1. 

Following the opener, the teams faced off against Thomas County Central, where both the Lady Dogs and Bulldogs won 3-2. 

“All three of our singles won on both boys and girls,” Grave De Peralta said. 

When it came to Thursday’s match against Valdosta, both the Lady Dogs and Bullodgs lost, but Grave De Peralta felt like it was great competition. 

“This is a very tough team for us,” she said. “It’s really great competition, so even if we don’t win, I just wanted it to be close matches and help us get ready as we go into region at the end of the month.” 

The Lady Dogs lost 0-5. 

Number one singles Ellie Rock lost to Kendall Haden 0-6, 1-6. However, number two singles Anne Martin Lutes went into a set of three. She lost the first set 1-6, before winning in the second set, 6-4. Loughren Haden went on to beat Lutes in the final set, 10-8 though. 

Number three singles Faith Fitzgerald lost to Fiora Shen, 1-6, 2-6. 

Number one doubles team, Hensley Road and Trinity Do lost to Vivian Thomas and Gretchen Stubbs, 1-6, 1-6 and number two doubles team Anna Shokat and Cash Lunimer lost to Olivia Shen and Meghan Patel, 0-6, 1-6. 

The Bulldogs lost 1-4, but had several close matches. 

Number one singles Colin Szwarc lost to Lleyton Gonzalez, 1-6, 3-6. 

However, number two singles Jake Von Hellens took it into a set of three against William Hinton. 

Von Hellens narrowly lost the first set, 6-7, before beating Hinton in the second set, 7-5. Hinton came back in the third set to take a 10-12 win. 

Number three singles Wesley Montgomery was the lone winner of the day, beating Dhruv Patel in a close set of three. 

Montgomery lost the first set, 3-6, before coming back in the second set to win, 6-3. He continued with his momentum, eventually winning 10-6 in the final set. 

For first time number one doubles team, Timmy Cordista and Brock Shiner, the match was close. They narrowly lost 4-6 in the first set, before losing against Monty Fans and Miren Patel, 2-6 in the second set. 

The final match of the day was against number two doubles team Colin Crocker and Corban Cone. The duo lost, 0-6, 3-6 against Koby Stone and Charlie Wilson. 

The team will now play Chiles High School on February 21, at home.