RALEIGH - East Chapel Hill fall tennis improved to an impressive 11-1 Friday as the Wildcats prep for the start of their conference season.

Coach Lindsey Linker's club has won nine its 11 victories by a 9-0 score, except for 7-2 over rival Chapel Hill and Friday's 7-2 win over a solid Charlotte Country Day team in the East-West Tennis Challenge in Raleigh. CHHS is now in the Carolina Six 3-A Conference, so that match didn't count in the Wildcats' conference record.

ECH clocked one of Chapel Hill's new Carolina-Six rivals, 2008 state 2-A runner-up Cardinal Gibbons, by a 9-0 score on Tuesday. 2008 2-A singles champion Lauren Brooker didn't play against the Wildcats. She did play in Gibbons' first tennis match as a member of the Carolina Six, a 5-4 loss to Chapel Hill on Wednesday.

Brooker won her match Wednesday at No. 1 singles against Tori Helpingstine, but Chapel Hill's Hannah Kimbrough, Danielle Cohen and Kelsey Wayne won on courts 2-3-6, respectively to tie the match at 3-3 heading into doubles. Helpingstine & Kimbrough and Cohen & Sutton won their doubles matches to seal the team win for Chapel Hill, (3-3 overall, and 1-0 in the Carolina-Six. Ravenscroft was 8-5 (0-1 in the Carolina-Six) after its two losses last week.

East Chapel Hill is usually very good in girls and boys tennis, and Linker is among the top high school tennis coaches in the state. But the Wildcats' quick start has surprised her.

"I have been pleasantly surprised," Linker said. "Our leadership has been exceptionally good. Our girls have really done a good job."

Seniors Tamara Hill, Megan Huang and Tegan Flynn are playing Nos. 1, 3 and 4. Junior Tessa Johnson is at No. 2, and sophomores Jasmine Sun and Alice Huang (no relation to Megan) handle Nos. 5 and 6.

East Chapel Hill is ranked No. 2 in the state 4-A rankings behind Charlotte Myers Park, but Linker has been impressed with Broughton, which the Wildcats play on Sept. 23.

The undefeated Caps are ranked No. 4 behind Myers Park, East and Greensboro Grimsley.

The Wildcats face some of the top independent schools this weekend, playing Charlotte County Day on Friday and Charlotte Latin and Charlotte Providence Day on Saturday in matches at North Raleigh Christian. (The matches were played too late for this weekend's edition of the Chapel Hill News. See www.newsobserver.com or this weekend's editions of the News & Observer for results.)

East Chapel Hill dipped its toe into PAC-6 play earlier this month with a 9-0 win over Northern Diurham, but gets into the meat of its conference schedule this week, beginning with a match Tuesday at Roxboro Person.