The Darlington Tigers have their sights set on the goal of a state championship, but a team has to take one step at a time in the postseason to make that happen.
The Tigers took another one of those steps Tuesday afternoon with a dominant 5-0 win on their home courts over Tallulah Falls in the Class A Division I state tournament.
Darlington swept all five lines for the second consecutive round after completing the feat last week against Atlanta International in the first round. The win pushed the Tigers into the state quarterfinals, where they will face Temple.
“I would say that the boys came out ready to work hard. Tallulah Falls is always a challenging opponent, and our team prepared carefully for the match,” Darlington head coach Betina Fuentes said. “In the end, we were able to pull off a sweep, and it’s a huge confidence-booster for us going into the next round of playoffs.”
Darlington got wins in singles play from No. 1 Jan Luis Weers, No. 2 Murray Ellington and No. 3 John Courtnay. The momentum carried over into the doubles lines as the No. 1 duo of Nicolas Ntayagabiri and Felipe Selle, along with the No. 2 duo of Asa Shepard and Grady Ferguson, pulled off victories as well.
Darlington will be on the road in the next round at Temple, with the date and time for the matchup to be announced. With both teams being No. 1 seeds, Temple was awarded home-court advantage based on the GHSA’s universal coin flip for like seeds.
Published in the Rome News-Tribune on April 24, 2024
