The A.C. Flora Falcons, 2025 SCHSL Class 4A Girls Tennis State Champions (l-r): Front row—Assistant Coach Paige Haas, Ella Foley, Liza Stavrou, Carlyn Guffee, Emily Smith, Ruby Cecchini, and Catherine Smith; Back row—Athletic Director Michelle Yeater, Stokely Haile, Lucy Laffitte, Liv Homewood, Eden Hall, Julia Blair Reynolds, McRae Robertson, Eloise Rhodes, Scottie West, MK Ellington, Maddy White, Anna Claire McCain, Head Coach Amy Martin, Principal Susan Childs, and Richland One District Athletic Director Bob Matz
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A.C. Flora girls and boys tennis head coach Amy Martin won her fifth state championship this past Saturday, but this was the first time her Falcons have had to come from behind and win a seventh and deciding match in dramatic fashion to get her that title.
Martin has had close calls, but nothing like her girls’ team faced in the Class 4A Girls Tennis State Championship match at Cayce Fitness and Tennis Center on November 8. Her Falcons were down 3-2 to the Lower State Champion Gray Collegiate War Eagles after singles play and had to gut out a win at No. 2 doubles just to stay alive and then close it out with a pair of sisters, Emily and Catherine Smith, to claim the championship.
“I have not had one this close,” Martin said. “I do not advise it. I think it makes it more special, especially when Emily and Cat were able to pull it out together. Starting back August 1, your goal is to get here, and then to have to close it out like that, that’s huge.”
The War Eagles set the tone early as Cecily Lokodi downed A.C. Flora No. 4 Ruby Cecchini 6-0, 6-1 for a 1-0 lead.
A.C. Flora head girls & boys tennis coach Amy Martin holds up her fifth State Championship trophy. Martin has three with the boys and now two with the girls.
However, A.C. Flora No. 5 Liza Stavrou tied the match at 1-1 beating Gray’s Sidney Moore 6-4, 6-0. Stavrou had a key win in the semifinal match against Daniel as well.
“It seems like it’s forever ago,” Martin said of Stavrou’s win, which came a little after 11 a.m. The bout with Gray went on for three more hours. “But Liza has done this all season long being at five, just rolls. Sometimes it takes her an hour; sometimes it takes her two hours, but usually she does have a W.”
Stavrou also won a state championship in dramatic fashion with the girls soccer team last spring.
“It still hasn’t set in that we’ve won state for both soccer and tennis,” Stavrou said. “But it’s a pretty great feeling to know that we’ve gotten two state championships in a year. It’s been really emotional because it’s the last match and last soccer season coming up. It’s been great to know that we’ve ended it on such a high note.”
A.C. Flora’s Catherine and Emily Smith celebrate their win at No. 1 doubles over Gray Collegiate’s Morgan Horlback and Kate Snyder earning the Falcons the Class 4A Girls Tennis State Championship.
The War Eagles regained the lead shortly thereafter as Alisa Petushko beat A.C. Flora No. 3 Carlyn Guffee 6-3, 6-2.
Then the drama really started to set in as A.C. Flora No. 2 Catherine Smith took the first set against Gray’s Kate Snyder 6-3, but Snyder fought back to take the second set 6-3 forcing a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match. Catherine Smith regained control winning the tiebreaker 10-4 to tie the overall match at 2-2.
“I feel like winning that match just really set the mood because that gave us an opportunity to say, ‘We can do this,’” Catherine Smith said.
Martin agreed.
“Cat coming through was huge,” she said. “I think that gave Cat and her sister the edge they needed to go with No. 1 doubles.”
Before any doubles action, there was still a battle going on at No. 1 singles between Gray’s Morgan Horlback and A.C. Flora’s Emily Smith. Horlback was able to win the first set 6-2, but Emily Smith grabbed a 4-1 lead in the second set. Horlback won five of the next six games to lead 6-5, but Emily Smith tied the set at 6-6 to force a tiebreaker. They went back and forth before Horlback was able to win the tiebreaker 9-7 and give the War Eagles a 3-2 lead.
A.C. Flora No. 5 Liza Stavrou chips a backhand return in her match against Gray Collegiate’s Sidney Moore.
That meant the A.C. Flora No. 2 doubles team of Ella Foley and Stokely Haile had to win against Gray’s MC Gabrielli and Stella Malcom to keep the Falcons’ hopes alive.
“I feel like it was a lot of pressure, but I knew that our team has worked so hard this season; we just really wanted to show that hard work,” Foley said.
Foley and Haile did just that winning 6-3, 6-4 to tie the overall match at 3-3 and put the outcome in the hands of No. 1 doubles.
“I think that it was very helpful having Ella on the court playing doubles together because whenever we would get in a rough mood, we would just look at each other, take a deep breath, and we knew we were good,” Haile said.
The A.C. Flora No. 2 doubles team of Stokely Haile and Ella Foley. Haile hits a forehand and Foley punches a backhand return.
Foley and Haile played with Stavrou on the state championship winning soccer team as well.
“They see the whole court,” Martin said. “They also communicate all the time. A lot of times with soccer players you’re yelling, but they talk to each other and were able to pull it out.”
Emily and Catherine Smith then took on Horlback and Snyder at No. 1 doubles in the decisive seventh match.
“We were really nervous going out there, but we knew that it was kind of up to us, and so we wanted to carry our team and just win it for everyone,” Emily Smith said.
Horlback and Snyder built a 4-3 lead in the first, but the Smiths came back to take the set 6-4 seemingly running down every shot from the Gray duo.
“We didn’t even have much of a strategy—just to hit it back,” Emily Smith said. “So, getting to everything was kind of what we were doing.”
The Smiths then raced to a 4-1 lead in the second.
“We’re short,” Catherine Smith said. “And we’re fast, but I feel like a lot of people just know us to get everything, so that’s honestly just our main goal because we knew that eventually they would get tired.”
The Smiths held on to win 6-3 giving the Falcon girls team its first title since 2018 and second with Martin at the helm.
“Having twin sisters out there that know each other’s thoughts, moves, communication, all that; that’s a big plus,” Martin said.
Josh Cruse contributed to this article.
Gray Collegiate No. 1 Morgan Horlback hits a backhand in her match against A.C. Flora’s Emily Smith.
Gray Collegiate No. 3 Alisa Petushko lunges for a forehand in her match against A.C. Flora’s Carlyn Guffee.
Gray Collegiate No. 4 Cecily Lokodi rips a backhand in her match against A.C. Flora’s Ruby Cecchini.
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