It’s not a bad way to begin a high school coaching career.
Lacey Craig returned to her roots of sorts Tuesday in a different role. She excelled in collegiate tennis for Berry College as a player, and right away Craig is passing on her knowledge at Darlington School leading both the boys and girls varsity programs.
The Tiger boys, at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College, defeated Lovett School of Atlanta 3-0 in the GHSA Private A-AAA “Elite 8” round to advance to the semifinals, or “Final 4.” The No. 2-seeded boys team in the bracket will return to its courts on the Darlington campus Friday and face No. 3 Athens Academy beginning at 4 p.m.
Lovett arrived in Rome as the No. 7 seed, and each side showed a lot of spirit from point to point. It was all Darlington, though, in the best-of-5 contest with three straight-set victories to secure the team win even as one other match split sets.
First, No. 3 singles Randy Kim scored his match point inside the back line to win 6-1, 6-0.
Murray Ellington was the next to win at No. 3 singles by a 6-0, 6-4 score.
Darlington’s other singles player, John Courtnay, lost his first set 3-6 but came back to win the second 6-3.
Most of the attention, though, was at the doubles courts as the Tigers had one-set leads in both. Davis Carney and Grady Ferguson, the No. 2 pair, had a first-set battle go their way 6-4, but then built a big 5-0 lead that had them serving for the whole match after Lovett won a game for 5-1.
Felipe Selle and Lukas Hempel immediately joined the victory celebration knowing their No. 1 match was essentially over.
“Myself was Berry tennis, and so this is my hometown from college,” said Craig about playing at the RTC. “Something about playing at night with the lights and getting people to come off regular courts and come out all this way, it means something for them. Especially having the people they see every single day coming out and supporting them. The energy kind of changes and the boys are super into it. It was really exciting for them to have the opportunity to come out (Tuesday) as well as (Monday) when we practiced too.”
This being team tennis with the three singles and two doubles means a high school needs seven solid players to fill all the spots and to be able to have three to five winning efforts each match. It’s all the same rules as if it were an individual draw, so what is it that makes this Darlington team No. 2 in its classification and a semifinalist?
“We have a bit of an older team, and with that comes so many leaders,” said Craig. “We have leaders who are bringing our younger players into a role to be young leaders. With our team, it’s all about doing what you would want to represent Darlington tennis. Whether that is being respectful, pushing yourself during practice, supporting your teammates when they are on the court. We have it all going on.”
The winner between Darlington and Athens Academy will play either No. 1 Greater Atlanta Christian or No. 5 Wesleyan in the Private Boys finals, and that’s going to be May 13 at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College. When reminded of the state finals location, Craig stated, “We’ll be back.”
This article was originally published in the Rome News-Tribune by Matthew Brown on May 7, 2026.
Photo by Steven Eckhoff
Photo by Steven Eckhoff
