FORT DEFIANCE — Five singles matches played, five singles matches won. Fort Defiance wasted little time in winning its girls tennis Class 2 state quarterfinal match over Randolph-Henry Friday, June 5, coming out on top 5-0 to advance to the state semifinals.

Fort Defiance will host Bruton, a 5-3 winner over Central Woodstock, on Monday, June 8. According to the Virginia High School League website, the start time is 11 a.m., although Fort Coach Ryan Tenberg wasn't certain of the start time as of Friday afternoon. The match will be played at Fort's home courts at Stewart Middle School across the road from the high school.

"It's a little surreal," Tenberg said. "I knew we had a really strong team, but I also knew that we've never really done this before, so I wasn't fully expecting it."

Tenberg said she was excited when Fort Defiance won the Region 2B championship, the first time in over a quarter century that has happened. Now, to win the state quarterfinal match in dominating style creates even more excitement for Tenberg and the program.

This is not only Tenberg's first year as Fort's head coach, but also her last. She will be moving out of the area after the season. But what a way to go out.

"It's just like I'm finally realizing, 'Oh my gosh, this team is really good,'" Tenberg said. "We could go all the way."

Fort beat Central Woodstock in the regional championship a year after losing to it at that same point of the season in 2025. On Friday, Fort beat Randolph-Henry a year after losing to it in the 2025 state quarterfinals to end its season. This postseason is turning out to be the Fort Defiance revenge tour.

Maecy Ann Frizzelle, Fort's No. 1 singles player, won 6-0. 6-2. No. 2 Clara Lambert won 0-6, 6-2, 10-7, the match-clinching victory. No. 4 Leah Wright, No. 5 Henley Ann Coffman and No. 6 Natalie Shaw all won 6-0, 6-0.

No. 3 Savanna Monger split her first two matches, but because Lambert won she didn't have to go to the tiebreaker. Fort also didn't have to play doubles.

Tenberg said one of the strengths of this year's team's is the ability to win at the last three singles positions on the ladder. A lot of teams have strong players at the top of the ladder, but not everyone is as strong across the board. That's not the case for Fort Defiance this season.

"We can reliably win at all of those three positions and at all three doubles pretty consistently," Tenberg said. "Our No. 6, I mean, she can compete with our No. 1. We just have an extremely consistent ladder, and our one through three are fighters. They go out there, and they put their all in, but just to have those kind of guaranteed wins at the lower ladder has just been such a weight off, and it lowers the pressure on some of our higher players so that they can perform a little better."

The last two wins has helped Fort Defiance gain the confidence to go with the talent.

"I think the girls kind of started to realize that we actually have a chance of carrying on and making it all the way to the finals," Tenberg said, "so it was an eye-opening day, for sure."

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Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips are always welcome. Connect with Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and on Instagram @hitepatrick. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Fort Defiance moves into girls tennis state semifinals