SYLVANIA — For the just second time in the history of the Screven County tennis team, the Lady Gamecocks won’t be playing in the Final Four.
    The No. 1 Class AA team in the state, the Thomasville Lady Bulldogs, left Sylvania Tuesday afternoon with a ticket to the Final Four after knocking off SCHS 3-2 in the Elite Eight of the GHSA Class AA playofs.
    Knowing that Thomasville’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles players were going to be tough, the Screven doubles pairs knew they were going to have to start the match strong. They stepped up, taking some of the pressure off the singles players by sweeping the doubles sets.
    “You have to be in some state of confidence,” said freshman Sydnee Weaver, who took the No. 2 doubles match in two sets (6-2, 6-2) with partner Kelsey Forehand, “but everybody’s a little nervous.”
    Fellow doubles team Carter Mills and Missy Zeigler also won in two sets, giving up just one game in the 6-1, 6-0 win.
    “It’s the best we’ve played all year,” said Mills.
    The Thomasville singles players were as good as advertised, knocking off Kate Blackburn (No. 1 singles — 6-1, 6-0), Evan Shepherd (No. 2 singles — 6-1, 6-1) and Kathryn Wells (No. 3 singles — 6-1, 6-3) to seal the victory.
    “All of the pressure was on the other team,” said Screven coach Ella McAfee. “They were the ones traveling, we we’re the ones that have gone to the Final Four and out of all the times we’ve played them, this is the first time they beat us.”
    The Gamecocks last played the Thomasville in the second round of the 2006 state playoffs, coming away with the win to advance to the Elite Eight.
    The playoffs are nothing new to Screven County. Since the school started playing team tennis in 1990, they have failed to make it to the Final Four only once before (1995).
    Thomasville is the first public school to beat SCHS this decade. The last time the Gamecocks lost to a non-private school was when Cartersville came away with a win in 1999.
    The coaches attribute much of the team’s postseason success to the tough non-region schedule they put together, having the girls compete with the top talent in the state during the regular season.
    “We make a tough schedule knowing that we’re not going to go into this 18-0 like Thomasville did,” said McAfee. “Our schedule was tough. We played teams like Savannah Country Day, Lakeside (Evans), Buford and Providence Christian — we go to all these tournaments because we know that to make it at this level, you’ve got to play people.”
    “We felt just as prepared as (Thomasville) even though they came in undefeated,” said fellow SCHS coach Crystal Shepherd. “It was just their day today.”
    The Gamecocks see no reason why the team should not see continued success in the future. Graduating only two seniors (Blackburn and Mills), Screven tennis will remain mostly intact in 2009.
    “The good thing about next year is we’re losing two seniors and we have no juniors,” said McAfee. “Our whole team is going to be sophomores and freshmen coming up.”

    Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9404.