SANFORD — A pair of Citrus High School senior tennis players went out with their rackets swinging at the FHSAA Class 2A State Tennis Finals on Wednesday at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford.
Citrus senior Natalie Dodd returns a shot during singles play Wednesday at the FHSAA Class 2A State Tennis Finals at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford.
Natalie Dodd reached the final tournament of the season in singles and was joined later in the day by teammate Chase Davis in doubles play.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better set of team captains,” Citrus coach Katie Hughes said. “These girls are the epitome of hard work. Everything they do, they give 100 percent. That said, we knew the talent and skill at state would be a caliber we’ve yet to see and we were right. That 100 percent couldn’t have saved us today.”
Dodd fell in her singles match 6-0, 6-0 to Hannah Hogg of McKeel Academy in Lakeland. The Hurricane nearly picked up a game on the junior standout late in the second set, but fell a little short of getting on the board.
“I wanted to get a game so bad. And I got close to it, but she is a great player. She’s definitely going to go places,” Dodd said.
Despite the shutout loss, Dodd was still excited about the chance to play at state a couple of times.
“It’s an honor to be here. I’m glad I’m able to represent Citrus County,” she said. “It’s definitely a new level of playing today. But it was fun. I enjoyed it.
“It was a challenging match, obviously, but I like to be challenged and I feel I came out of it a better player just learning from it.”
Davis and Dodd hit the court later in the day to face Hogg and her doubles partner, Eva Harris.
The Hurricane duo held their own against the McKeel Academy pair, dropping a 6-1, 6-4 decision.
“I was so incredibly proud of them,” Hughes said. “We rallied hard with many duece and ad points and came up short.”
Dodd said the hard work put in this season paid off for the pair of seniors.
“It was definitely a goal for us, to make it to state and make it this far,” she said. “It’s definitely been our end goal and we’re blessed to have been able to do it.”
http://www.chronicleonline.com/content/despite-end-result-hard-work-pays-%E2%80%99canes