Hoggard girls tennis claims 8A East title, earns first-ever state championship berth
The Hoggard girls tennis team has waited decades for this moment.
Under a clear, calm October sky in Wilmington, the top-seeded Vikings (20-0) finished what generations before them had started, defeating No. 3 Broughton 5-1 in the NCHSAA 8A East dual-team regional final on Wednesday, Oct. 22, to secure a long-awaited trip to the state championship.
For coach Michael Bowen, now in his 19th year coaching at Hoggard, it’s a moment long in the making.
“This has been in the making since we started workouts in mid-July,” Bowen said. “This is the epitome of what hard work looks like to be able to play for a state championship.”
The match was sealed before doubles play ever began. Freshman Zoe Ten Brink delivered the decisive point after a tense, two-hour battle on the No. 3 singles court. Her two-set victory pushed Hoggard into waters it’s never sailed before.
“It was really stressful,” Ten Brink said with a smile. “I had to have a lot of patience with myself and everything around me. I stayed calm, took deep breaths, and just kept thinking about the team. I wanted to pull it out so everyone could celebrate.”
Freshman Kenzie Le and sophomore Allie Sauer added their own piece of magic to the story, each winning third-set tiebreakers that swung the momentum firmly in Hoggard’s favor.
“After I lost the first set, I knew I had to get it back,” Le said. “It was about staying strong and not dwelling on the past.”
Freshman twin sisters Braelyn (No. 1 singles) and Zannah (No. 2 singles) Roberson collected the other two points for the Vikings, continuing the duo’s undefeated status this fall.
For a team that has rolled through the 2025 season without blemish, Tuesday’s win was about more than advancing — it was about history. No public school in Wilmington, boys or girls, has ever brought home a dual-team state title. Hoggard now stands just one match away from changing that.
They’ll face undefeated Western champion Myers Park (14-0) for the 4A state crown on Saturday, Nov. 1, in Burlington.
“We haven’t reached the pinnacle of what we set out to do yet,” Bowen said. “It’ll be work as usual this week, and then we’ll head to Burlington to try to win a state championship.”
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Hoggard girls tennis surges past Broughton, earns first state title berth
