Wildcats tennis savors conference title

By: Brian Meadows | Mooresville Tribune
Published: October 27, 2009

The dual-team playoffs didn't go so well, but Lake Norman's girls tennis team enjoyed a strong first season in the state's 4A classification.

The Wildcats finished with a 12-4 record after losing 7-2 to Providence in the first round of the state playoffs.

"We are very proud of our players' accomplishments this year and look forward to working with this young group of athletes" in the coming seasons, Lake Norman coach Lezlie Carroll said.

The Wildcats, led by Shruthi Rajan, won all their I-Meck Conference matches to capture the league championship. A 6-3 win over Mooresville in the regular-season finale was as close as any conference team came to beating them.

They surged to a perfect conference record, despite losing two of their top players last season to graduation. One of those was Kathryn Talbert, who's now excelling as a member of the Wake Forest women's tennis team.

But Carroll said she and her husband Chris, the assistant coach, sensed early on that they still had the firepower to win the conference title.

"We did set a goal of winning the I-Meck Conference," she said. "Surprisingly, it was in a loss that we began to believe we could do it. When we lost (5-1) to Salisbury (the defending 2A state champions), Chris and I saw how long our girls stayed in the points. We also saw our young players try to adjust their strategy.

"Those were things that we could build on, and we did as a team."