Fike’s Pearsons fall in state 3-A doubles final

BURLINGTON — An unprecedented run by Fike High brothers Collins Pearson and Snyder Pearson in the NCHSAA 3-A boys tennis championships came just short of the goal.

The Pearsons, who finished runners-up in the 3-A East Regional a week ago, settled for state 3-A runners-up this weekend at Burlington Tennis Center after losing 6-4, 6-4 in the final to another brother act, Hickory’s Graham Powers-Clint Powers.

The Golden Demons duo won two matches Friday to become Fike’s first boys tennis doubles team to reach to the state semifinals.

Pearson-Pearson dropped Lake Norman Charter’s Charlie Schild-Tejas Sridar 6-4, 6-4 in Saturday’s semifinals. Powers-Clint Powers had eliminated East Regional champs Anthony Vucinovic-J.J. Woerner of First Flight 6-4, 7-5 in the other semifinal.

Snyder Pearson, the senior who made it past Friday at the state tournament for the first time in his career, said that playing Vucinovic-Woerner in the East Regional (losing in three sets at North Carolina Wesleyan University’s courts in Rocky Mount) told him what he already knew: The East Region was as tough as any other.

“I knew, for doubles anyway, that the East Regional was … we felt like that was the best regional,” Snyder Pearson said. “The fact that we lost that way against the 1 seed and in a third set that way, said that we could compete with anybody. And as those first two matches went, that was my first time getting to the second day. So I was really happy once that happened and that third match at that point was gravy. I was so, so excited to be able to play in the final like that.”

The Pearsons ousted James Dover-Rex Dover of South Point in the first round Friday when head coach Lee Matthews and assistant coach Greg Adkins could see they were already humming.

“Greg and I talked about the fact that in the first round we could tell Snyder was feeling it,” Matthews said. “First-round matchup, he was absolutely bombing serves and doing everything right and shell-shocked those boys from South Point enough that they started slow-playing us in the very first round.”

Pearson-Pearson then forced Matthews to get another night at the hotel by stopping Durham School of the Arts’ Zach Blizzard-Grant Euler 6-3, 7-5.

Until Saturday, Nick James was the last male player from a Wilson high school to reach the second day of the state tournament when he bowed as a Fike freshman in the 2009 3-A singles semifinals in Burlington. The Pearsons are the first boys doubles team from Fike to play for a state title but the second overall duo to do so this year. Fike senior twins Kathryn Adkins and Caroline Adkins lost in the 3-A girls tennis doubles final this past fall after winning the state doubles crown in 2022 as juniors.

Pearson-Pearson worked past Lake Norman’s Schild-Sridhard to set up the finals showdown the Powers brothers. Graham Powers, a senior, was half of the 2023 NCHSAA 3-A doubles championship duo with Griffin Lovern but was playing with young brother Clint, a sophomore. Both sets were knotted at 4-4 until the Hickory duo took the last two by breaking Snyder Pearson.

“Just one or two points each way, it could have been a really different match. It was really unfortunate,” Pearson said.

Teammates Dylan Skinner and Zachary Hill, who lost to West Henderson’s Drake Gallian-Julian Stolevski 6-2, 7-5 in the first round, stuck around to cheer for the Pearsons.

While the disappointment of a losing a tightly-played state championship match won’t fade so easily, the Demons are far from done playing this season. Fike will visit Fayetteville Terry Sanford on Monday in the fourth round of the 3-A dual-team playoffs. Another win Wednesday in the East final and the entire Fike team heads back to Burlington.

“We need to win tomorrow so we can get past the fourth round and get this thing out there where we can play somebody from the West and get back up there this coming Saturday,” Matthews said.

It’s been a magical run, especially for Snyder Pearson, who won a regional doubles title with Hatten Gore in 2022 but was happy to have younger brother Collins as his partner in his last season before playing tennis at University of Mount Olive.

“Wow, it’s been really special. I knew coming in that we have a great group of people that we can really build around,” he said. “/and when you have all people around the same age, you only get better as you go up. And now it’s senior year and you know that we’ve got a legitimate chance to go and do something really special and we’re gonna try and do that in this next week.”

OTHER AREA PLAYERS

C.B. Aycock senior Ethan Carlyle, the 3-A Quad County Conference champion and East Regional runner-up, was the only other entry from the Times readership area to make it past Friday in Burlington. Carlyle handled Blake Walker of St. Stephens 6-1, 6-1 in the first round but fell 6-1, 6-0 to eventual state singles champ Drew Hedgecoe of Terry Sanford in the next round.
Hedgecoe defeated East regional champ Shaw Akula in the final for his third straight 3-A singles crown.

Hunt High senior Alex Ellis, the East No. 3 seed who was making his first appearance in the state tournament, lost in three sets to West No. 2 Derek Hinkle of Smoky Mountain.

In the NCHSAA 2-A championships at Ting Park in Holly Springs, Greene Central’s William Drake lost to Franklin Academy’s Alphonso Sison in three sets. Sison, the 2023 2-A singles champ, retained his title with a 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3 defeat of Drake.

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