Sixteen singles players and 16 doubles pairs qualified for last weekend's 4A Mideast individual girls tennis regional at Millbrook Exchange Park in Raleigh, but only four of each will get the chance to return to those courts this weekend.

Among them were some of the best players from the Tri-Nine Conference.

Green Hope's Audrey Channell and Panther Creek's Megan Smith earned No. 2 and 3 seeds, respectively, for the 4A state tournament as representatives from the Mideast regional.

The state tournament begins Friday and will be completed on Saturday. The top four seeds from the East, Mideast, Midwest and West regionals will compete against one another.

Smith, the Tri-Nine Conference champion, fell to eventual Mideast regional champ Sarah King of Broughton 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 but rebounded with a 6-0, 6-3 defeat of Millbrook's Lauren McCorquodale in the third-place match.

Channell won her first three matches of the tournament, placing her in the regional championship. She fell to King 6-2, 6-4.

The other area players that earned a berth in the 4A championships were Green Hope's Helen Wang and Priyanka Srinivas. The Tri-Nine doubles champions won their first two matches before falling 6-0, 6-1 to Mideast champs Maggie and Katie Kane of Broughton.

Wang and Srinivas will be the 4-seed out of the Mideast after dropping the third-place match 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 to East Chapel Hill's Jasmine Sun and Sheila Deng.

A year ago, Green Hope graduate Melissa Kandinata won the 4A singles title.