CLAYTON - East Wake won its final regular season tennis match over Knightdale 5-3 last Tuesday to improve to a 9-5 record on the season.

The Lady Knights boasted the same record as the two teams headed into the conference tournament at Clayton High School Friday and Saturday and determined their fates for the regional tournament, which will take place Friday at 2 p.m. at Terry Sanford High School.

East Wake's Adrinne Beaver entered the conference tourney the No. 1-seed singles player and won three matches before falling in the championship match to the No. 2 Olivia Juarez of Smithfield-Selma. Beaver's teammate Morgan Piner, seeded No. 6, faced Julianna Womble from Knightdale in the first round and won 6-2, 6-2. Piner won her second round match in a tiebreaker before facing Juarez in round three and falling 6-2, 6-4. Both Beaver and Piner qualified for the regional tournament.

Morgan Nelson was the only Knightdale individual, or team, to qualify to compete in regionals. Nelson won her first match against Southeast 6-3, 6-3, but was defeated by Katie Durham 6-3, 6-4 in round two. She had to qualify to keep her No. 5 seeding and advance to regionals, and she did so with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Southeast's No. 3-seed Julia McNulty.

Lady Warriors April Williford and Nicole Duke (No. 5 doubles) won their first round match 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, then dropped in the second round to the Smithfield-Selma group that placed second in tourney. Like Nelson in singles, the doubles team had to come back and play a qualifying match to advance to regionals, and did so with a win over Southeast, 6-3, 6-3.

Knightdale's No. 1 doubles pairing of Emily White and Paige Peterson were upset in round one by an unseeded Clayton team that ended their regional hopes. East Wake's Emma Cannon and Michelle Moseley, unseeded, made it past the eighth-seeded Knightdale team of Allison Adams and Elizabeth Ellison (which had won twice in the regular season) 6-2, 6-1, but fell out to the tournament's doubles winners from Clayton in the next round.

Last year, the East Wake team finished the season with a 1-15 record. Returning all but one of the top six players on the team, coach Kelley Connolly said this season's record is proof of the hard work that has taken place.

"That makes this the best East Wake tennis representation that I can remember or know of," Connolly said. "When I started this season out, I put on my goals to win four matches, and we won nine. It's such a mental game and we have really focused on being mentally strong in the last four matches. They have really pulled together on the mental toughness."

Knightdale coach Brandon Kimble said his team played really well over the course of the season, but he felt his team could've finished better than it did. All obstacles aside, he's proud.

"The group will lose six seniors, but I think we've established a foundation with Knightdale tennis that should be good for future teams," Kimble said.

He said it's obviously disappointing loosing the No. 1 doubles team in the first round, but Nelson (11-6 in singles play) is still alive and will serve as a quality representative of the Knightdale program.

Varsity tennis results: Knightdale vs. East Wake, Tuesday, Oct. 13

Singles:

1 - Adrinne Beaver (EW) def. Emily White 6-3, 7-5; 2 - Morgan Nelson (K) def. Morgan Piner 6-4, 6-4; 3 - Julianna Womble vs. Nicole Duke (INC); 4 - April Williford (EW) def. Paige Peterson 6-4, 6-0; 5 - Emma Cannon (EW) def. Allison Adams 6-3, 2-6, 15-13; 6 - Elizabeth Ellison (K) def. Michelle Moseley 6-1, 6-4

Doubles:

1 - Beaver/Piner (EW) def. White/Peterson 8-4; 2 - Duke/Williford (EW) def. Nelson/Womble 8-6; 3 - Adams/Ellison (K) def. Cannon/Moseley 8-5