The Dunwoody boys return most of the tennis team that didn’t lose a match during the regular season and reached the state quarterfinals.
The Wildcats, who play at Marist on Friday, went 19-1 and lost to River Ridge 3-2 in the quarterfinal round of the Class AAAAA tournament.
Dunwoody graduated Luke Bynum, who went 12-3 in singles. But the Wildcats return Brandon Gita, who was 15-0 a year ago in singles, and J.T. Melton and Daniel Bynum, who played doubles a year ago. Melton was 12-1 and Bynum was 9-1.
Coach Charles Meador begins his third season as the team to beat in Region 6-AAAAA.
Can Towers continue its run?
A year ago the Towers boys reached the state playoffs for the first time in Class AAA. The Titans went 11-3 under coach Emanuel Lewis and won their first-round match against Glenn Hills in the state playoffs. Towers returns their top three players and should again contend in Region 4-AAA.
Towers has three solid players in singles, starting with No. 1 Zachary Smith, who went 11-3 a year at the top of the lineup. The No. 2 and No. 3 singles players are last year’s No. 1 doubles team of Dalvin Morris and Joseph Kenner, who went 6-3 as a team a year ago.
The Titans play again on Friday against Cedar Grove.
Chamblee girls look to build on success
The Chamblee girls went 13-5 last season and return much of the team that advanced to the Class AAAA playoffs. The Bulldogs beat Troup in the first round, but lost a hard-fought 3-2 decision to North Hall in the second round.
Chamblee has a new coach, with Lisa Guyton taking over for Chris Smith, who had been at the helm since 2011.
The girls return Olena Bilukha, who was 17-0 at No. 2 singles as a freshman. Other singles returnees are Hannah Rosen and Leeza Ershtein, while Dendalle Smith is back to play doubles.
The boys also have a new coach in Larisa Tutchinsky. They went 4-13, but still reached the playoffs. Top returners include Vaibhav Vasudevan, Joe Lundy, Dixon Hall and Jacob Wuke.
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