The Terry Sanford doubles tennis team of Pauline Bui and Loren Galaviz won an NCHSAA 3A state championship Saturday in Burlington, dropping just one set in a victory over the defending state champions from Wilson Fike.
Bui and Galaviz added to the Bulldogs’ historic haul of state championships. Theirs is Terry Sanford’s seventh doubles title, tying the Bulldogs with Salisbury for most in state history. Before Saturday’s win, all of the Bulldogs’ titles had come during a run from 1977-’96 when they won six state championships in doubles, three individual titles and four straight dual-team championships.
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Bui and Galaviz dropped just nine sets and won 48 on the way to the title. The four-match run culminated on the second day of championship bracket play at the Burlington Tennis Center when they faced Wilson Fike’s senior twins Caroline and Kathryn Adkins, who had fought through their fourth straight state semifinal as the defending state champions.
Bui and Galaviz, a freshman and sophomore, respectively, rolled through the final 6-0, 6-1 to secure Terry Sanford’s first girls’ tennis state title in 27 years.
Cape Fear’s Shea Bieniek and Andi Brinker also were in the 3A championship field and won first- and second-round games Friday before falling to the Adkins twins in Round 3.
Terry Sanford’s Annie Lieberman qualified for the individual singles state championship and won her first-round match before falling to Forestview’s Rennie Liu, 6-1, 6-3, in Round 2. Liu would go on to play in the final, falling to Rocky Mount’s McKinley Battle.
Cape Fear game-changer Anna Piland also qualified for states but retired from her first-round match. The senior’s high school career ends with a pair of dual-team titles as the Colts’ leader, and a state doubles title with Brooke Bieniek in 2021 — the only girls’ tennis state championships in program history.
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Terry Sanford also is in the midst of the dual-team state playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the 3A East with a 16-0 record and a fourth-round match against No. 5 seed Greenville Rose (14-1) on Monday.
If the Bulldogs get past the Rampants, they’ll face No. 2 Wilson Fike and the Adkins twins or No. 3 Rocky Mount in the regional for a berth to the state championship. Rocky Mount (17-0) knocked out Cape Fear (16-1) in Round 3, 5-4.
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The Bulldogs reeled off four straight dual-team state championships from 1991-’94 as a 4A program. Three of their seven doubles state titles were won by twin teammates Lisa and Margit Monaco (1977-’79, ’80). Lisa Monaco also teamed with Marjorie Yarbrough to win the 1979 doubles championship.
Claire Cheatwood and Elizabeth Williams won the state doubles title for Terry Sanford in 1993, and Jennifer Blue and Mandy Stanfield captured doubles title No. 6 for the Bulldogs in 1996.
Blair Sutton won three straight individual singles 4A state championships for Terry Sanford from 1990-’93.