MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Friday at the TSSAA Spring Fling was the culmination of a great 12 months for Baylor School tennis player Sloane Proffitt.
It was a year ago to the day that Proffitt paired with Helen Guerry to earn the Division II-AA girls' doubles state title, with the championship final a three-set victory against Maud Fiorello and Addie Tabibiazar of GPS. That began a full year worth of winning for both Proffitt and the Lady Red Raiders, who on Wednesday earned the program's first team title since 2019. Proffitt, a junior, finished off the big week by taking yet another doubles title — this one with freshman Evie Mahler — over Fiorello and Tabibiazar, again in three sets.
This time, the Baylor duo fell behind by a set and then trailed 3-1, love-30 in the third set before running off wins in six of the final eight games.
"It's an emotional moment, very emotional," Proffitt said after accepting the doubles medal and posing for pictures, adding that she and Mahler "are like sisters, and we've bonded a lot through the season and we've had many challenges. Right now, everything is hitting all at once, but it feels so good.
"It's just been a really awesome week. I'm so happy for our seniors because Claudia (Finlay), she's been here since eighth grade and she's taken so many losses, and she's been here before along with (Margarette) Berdy. I know they're both really excited that we won it for their senior year, but I think our hard work that we started on the first day of school really paid off and showed how much we wanted it."
Added Mahler after Friday's 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory: "It's an exciting time, being a freshman and getting Sloane her back-to-back (doubles titles). I had a bit of a moment during the match, we both did, but I think we did a good job of overcoming it."
In the DII-AA girls' singles final, Baylor's Berdy — who will play next season at Washington and Lee University, an NCAA D-III program in Lexington, Virginia — lost to Knoxville Catholic's Lillian Murphy, 6-1, 6-2. The same players met in the team final two days earlier, with Murphy winning the No. 1 singles match, 6-1, 6-1, but Berdy's Lady Red Raiders winning 4-1 overall.
