Pinewood Prep set to face familiar foe

The site and the teams are the same as Pinewood Prep (16-3) goes after its second straight SCISA Class AAA boys' state tennis title against Hilton Head Prep (10-2) today at 3 p.m. at Walterboro's Forest Hills tennis complex.

But today's match will have a difficult time matching the excitement of last year's 5-4 Pinewood Prep victory in which the Panthers lost the first four positions in singles, and later were down a set in the decisive No. 1 doubles match. before rallying. This match likely will come down to doubles also.

"We've got to take the bottom two singles (No. 5 sixth-grader Adam Elliget and No. 6 freshman William Wert) and hopefully squeeze something out of the middle," Pinewood coach Heinz Maurer said.

Green Wave at home

Region 8-AAAA champion Summerville (15-3) faces a stern test at home today against Spring Valley in the quarterfinals of the Class AAAA boys' state playoffs. Spring Valley's only two losses have come to powerhouse West Florence, the defending state champion.

West Florence (19-3) will entertain Region 7-AAAA top seed Berkeley (15-2) in another state quarterfinal, with the winners of the two matches clashing Thursday for the Lower State title.

BE vs. Waccamaw set

Region 6-AA champion Bishop England (13-2) earned another shot at defending state champ Waccamaw with a 7-0 win over the Governor's School on Monday in a Class AA-A boys' state quarterfinal in which the Bishops yielded a total of only four games.

The Bishops are hoping to avoid the fate of the last four BE teams — ending the season in a playoff loss to powerful Waccamaw. Bishop England will host Waccamaw in a 4 p.m. match Wednesday at Mount Pleasant's Whipple Road complex for the Lower State title.

Waccamaw advanced to the Lower State final with a 6-0 thrashing of Class A Academic Magnet (6-6).

Reach James Beck at jdbeck@postandcourier.com.