It wasn’t easy, but the Mathews High School girls’ tennis team scored a big win last week over Group 4A Grafton. A couple days after opening the season with a 9-0 shutout against Group 5A Gloucester, the 1A Lady Devils defeated the Clippers, 5-4.

At the start, it didn’t look too good for Mathews as the first three seeds lost their singles matches. Top seed Morgan Johnson, also the Lady Devils’ team captain, fell to Winnie Zhang, 6-0, in the first set and lost a close 7-5 battle in the second.

At number two, Ashley Hudgins suffered a loss to Grafton’s Alex Dixon, 6-1, 6-1. Co-captain and #3 seed Rachel Stewart battled a tough three setter but lost to Jenna DeShayes, 1-6, 6-3 and 4-10 in a 10-point super tiebreaker.

At number four, Alexis Wells played a three and a half hour singles match against Yuki Ogusu. Each point the players hit anywhere from 15-20 balls back and forth. Wells lost the first set, 6-7, in a 12-point tiebreaker. The second set came to ...