Sisters team up to help AC Flora tennis to thrilling title win over Gray Collegiate
Emily and Catherine Smith couldn’t have scripted a better ending to their state championship tennis match.
The A.C. Flora juniors and twin sisters pulled out the deciding doubles match to give the Falcons a 4-3 win over Gray Collegiate in the Class 4A title match at the Cayce Tennis Center.
“It was really special getting to win it with my sister,” Catherine said. “I never thought it would happen in all of my years of high school tennis. I am so proud of this team and everyone who contributed to it. It really was a team effort, and I am proud of everyone.”
“Knowing we were the deciding match, I was a little nervous,” Emily said. “But that is what kept us going and having each other on the court.”
The title was the program’s third overall and second for head coach Amy Martin, who also has won three championships as the Falcons boys head coach, including one in May. Martin won her 500th match as head coach earlier in the postseason.
“Super special way to cap off the season,” Martin said. “Our goal was to get here, and then to cap it off like that was huge.”
The more-than-four-hour match had plenty of twists and turns on and off the court. A.C. Flora was likely going to play the match under protest after questioning Gray Collegiate’s ladder (playing order), specifically regarding No. 1 singles player Morgan Horlback, who transferred from Blythewood after the season’s practices began. Horlback sat the required 30 days because of the transfer and then won the challenge matches that determined playing order.
Based on rule 16-F in the S.C. High School League handbook, an opposing coach who questions the order of the challenge lineup can request the challenging order. According to school officials, the challenges were recorded digitally. Gray coach Madison Conwell would have had time to provide them had the War Eagles won the match.
“A bunch of them got flustered with all the stuff going on,” Conwell said. “I just told them to breathe and take a few seconds if they needed to. I told them, don’t let what is happening off the court affect what is happening on the court.”
On the court, Gray took a 3-2 lead after Horlback’s win at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7).
But the Falcons tied it when the No. 2 doubles team of Ella Foley and Stokely Haile, members of Flora’s championship soccer team, won their match 6-3, 6-4 to force the winner-take-all doubles match.
The Smith sisters were up to the challenge and defeated Horlback and Kate Snyder, 6-4, 6-3. The chemistry and the familiarity of the duo were evident during the match, with each helping the other out during various moments. Horlback and Snyder led 4-3 in the first set before the Smiths won the next three games to win the set.
In the second set, the twins jumped out to a 5-2 lead before Horlback and Snyder cut it to 5-3. But the Flora pair won the next game and clinched the title as Gray hit the ball into the net.
It was the second-straight playoff match the Smiths won at doubles. The two won 6-1, 6-0 to clinch the 4A Upper State championship match against Daniel on Tuesday.
“We had come so far just to lose it, and I wanted to win so bad since we lost it last year,” Catherine said. “It would mean so much to us individually and our team and coach.”
Gray Collegiate was making its first championship appearance in just the third year of the program. The War Eagles lost in the second round of the playoffs in their two previous seasons.
“This is an honor to make it this far,” Conwell said. “We had three great additions this year and are only losing two so we are going to come back even stronger.”
Class 4A Results
Singles: Morgan Horlback (GC) def. Emily Smith, 6-2, 7-6; Catherine Smith (ACF) def. Kate Snyder, 6-3, 3-6, 10-4; Alisa Petushko (GC) def. Carlyn Gufee, 6-3, 6-2; Cicily Lokodi (GC) def. Ruby Cecchini, 6-0, 6-1; Liza Starvou (ACF) def. Sidney Moore, 6-4, 6-0. Doubles: Emily/ Catherine Smith (ACF) def. Morgan Horlback/Kate Snyder, 6-4, 6-3; Ella Foley/Stokely Haile def. Stella Malcolm/Mary Catherine Gabrielli, 6-3, 6-4.
SCHSL Girls Tennis Champions
At Cayce Tennis Center
Class 5A Division I: Wando
Class 5A Division II: West Florence
Class 4A: AC Flora
Class 3A: Oceanside Collegiate
Class A/2A: Academic Magnet
This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM.
