"The bad thing for Chapel Hill is that they’re missing three of their players," East Chapel Hill coach Ann Booterbaugh said. "Even if they work hard, this is still a tough match for them."

Though the teams play in different conferences and classifications, both use the traditional home-and-away series as a measurement of their progess. Tuesday’s match may not have been a good gauge.

Rainouts and injuries have both slowed the start of Chapel Hill’s tennis season. And Chapel Hill (1-2) , ranked No. 9 by the state’s coaches in 3A classification, came into the match without its No. 1 singles player — Danielle Cohen, who was out with a pulled hamstring. That meant everyone had to play up one spot. Everyone that is except for two other Tigers usually in the top six — Ria Das (illness), Morgan Alderman (wrist tendinitis). Alderman is the daughter of Chapel Hill coach Neil Alderman, and her absence from singles was only part of the reason he was a bit unhappy Tuesday.

"We have six seniors (Cohen, Nicole Chang, Caroline Werk, Kelsey O’Regan, Arial Gunn and Robin Tanz,) but we’ve had a tough start so far," Neil Alderman said. "The girls have been playing hard, but I think we’ve been a little nervous. I think our expectations were pretty high for the team."

But expectations Tuesday were that East Chapel Hill, ranked No. 3 in the 4A coaches’ poll, would have little trouble with short-handed Chapel Hill.

"You get better when you play stronger teams, so we’ll take this, even though they are a much stronger team than we are," Alderman said. "We will get better from doing this. When we play other teams they won’t seem nearly as strong (as East.)"

Even with Chapel Hill’s slow start, the Wildcats were going to take the Tigers seriously.

"You don’t want to lose to Chapel Hill, no doubt," Booterbaugh said.

Before the match, East senior Brittany Hill, the team’s No. 1 singles player, exhorted her teammates: "play each point hard. Every point, every game, every match."

Hill, Caroline Pope, Rainie Heck, Mackenzie Bright, Julia Gan and Kiri Schulz all won in straight sets in singles, yielding just four games between them.

Things were a it closer in doubles, where Adrienne Davis and Cate Bahner were the only pair to win 8-0; Schulz and Eliana Fishbeyn won 8-5 over O’Regan and Werk at No. 1, and Corey Risinger/Katie Kennihan defeated Elora Dash and Morgan Alderman 8-3.

CHHS valued the experience of paying East, regardless of the outcome, Alderman said.

"It’s early in the season," Alderman said. "Hopefully, we’ll be able to get healthy and get things started on the right track. We’ve had a tough start."

CHHS proved Alderman right with a conference win, 9-0, Wednesday over Orange. Chang, O’Regan, Werk, Ria Das, Elora Dash and Sam Golden each won their singles in straight sets.

The pairs of Chang and Robin Tanz, Morgan Alderman and Das, and Gabriel Chew and Emily Molina all won their pro-set doubles.