With the girls’ tennis regular season coming to an end for Chatham County’s teams, the state playoffs are right around the corner.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association notified its membership Wednesday of the updates to the fall sports season and the playoffs based on the impact of Hurricane Helene.
Girls' tennis playoff brackets will now be released on Oct. 18 with the first round beginning on Oct. 21.
The dual team brackets will seed based on each classification’s RPI, or ratings percentage index, standings. RPI considers the winning percentage of a team, its opponents and its opponents’ opponents when determining how a team will be seeded. Conference winners get seeded first based on their RPI, and the rest of the brackets are filled with second-place automatic berths and at-large teams also seeded by their RPI.
In girls’ tennis, 32 teams make the dual team 1A bracket while 48 teams will qualify for the 2A bracket.
Here’s a playoff preview for each of the county’s teams projected to make the post season, including where they may be seeded and what to look out for when playoff action gets started:
Chatham Charter (1A East, automatic bid)
Conference record/place (as of Sunday): 3-0, First place
RPI: 0.56177
Projected seed: 1
As of Sunday, no one has been able to take down Chatham Charter this season. The Knights will likely enter the 1A playoffs as a one seed in the East, looking to build on last year’s deep playoff run in which it made the regional round as a 10 seed. Returning key players Mak Allen, Lauren Jones and Jordyn Garner, Chatham Charter is battle-tested and experienced. Should its regular season momentum carry over into the post-season, the Knights could very well be in the running for a state title.
Seaforth (2A East, automatic bid)
Final conference record/place: 10-0, First place
RPI: 0.56929
Projected seed: 6
Seaforth ended the regular season on a hot streak, winning six straight games and sweeping five of those opponents heading into the dual team playoffs. The Hawks are projected to fall near the six seed thanks to its conference title. Last year, Seaforth made it to the fourth round as a four seed, and it returns numerous key members of that team for this year’s playoff run. Although the top of the 2A East landscape will be a battle amongst some heavyweights, Seaforth could be another county team competing in the later rounds of the playoffs.
Northwood (2A East)
Final conference record/place: 7-5, Fourth place
RPI: 0.47614
Projected seed: 21
Ending the season with three straight wins over North Moore, Chatham Central and Jordan-Matthews, Northwood is projected to enter the 2A playoffs as a 21 seed. The Chargers didn’t get to make noise in the playoffs last year as they forfeited their first round matchup with NCSSM-Durham, but they’ll get another chance to pull off an upset.