The Colonels and Lady Colonels won their respective matches Saturday with Laney and Osborne, dropping just one game, which came in the Cass boys' match with Osborne.
The Lady Colonels swept both of their matches, getting wins in the Laney match from Tara Mathis, 6-0, 6-0; Hannah Delia, 6-0, 6-0; Emily Heater, 6-0, 6-0; Brianna Summers and Lauren Simonson, 6-1, 6-0; and Hannah Howard and Hannah Dunlap, 6-0, 6-0.
Those same girls won against the Lady Cardinals with the match going to a 10-game pro set. Mathis won, 10-0; Delia, 10-1; Heater, 10-0; Summers and Simonson, 10-0; and Howard and Dunlap, 10-0 (forfeit).
The Colonels picked up a 5-0 victory against Laney as wins were scored by Jeremy Coone, 6-4, 6-1; Jake Barnette, 6-0, 6-0; Joey Johnson, 6-2, 6-0; Daniel Smith and Sean Lapinski, 6-0, 6-0; and Matt Moore and Kaleb McBrayer, 6-0, 6-0.
Cass' boys winners against Osborne were Coone, 10-8; Johnson, 10-1; Smith and Lapinski, who won four straight games to tie at 8-all before pulling it out 11-9; and McBrayer and Moore, 10-0 (forfeit).
Barnette lost, 10-4, to the Cardinals' No. 1 singles player.
"When we schedule this tournament, we always try to schedule it like a midterm exam for the season. [We play] a bunch of games in a row, continue to keep our stamina at a high level and [continue] hitting balls," Cass coach Chris Allen said. "Tennis players get better by playing matches. ... While we should be having fun, the goal is to continue making progress and hopefully perform at the highest level."
Making the Colonels Tennis Invitational All-Tournament Girls Team were Woodland's Veronica Munsey and Tinsley Wiley; Laney's Candace Pittman and Phaedra Berry; Osborne's Miriam Hammond and Kenya Ruff; Cass' Delia and Simonson; and Excel Christian's Abbey Hibbard and Taylor Vaughn.
The all-tournament boys team was comprised of Woodland's Adam Tobin and Conner Nichols; Laney's Joshua Jones and Terrance Rodgers; Osborne's Evan Phillips and Boris Reljak; Cass' Coone and Moore; and Excel's Andrew Tyree and Stephen Barton.
Allen said his players like having a tournament to call their own.
"Our teams enjoy kind of being the hosts and saying, 'Yeah, this is our tournament, and everyone is coming to visit us,'" he said.
Plus, he added, they get to face teams beyond region opponents and area rivals, like Laney, which traveled from Augusta for this year's incarnation of the Colonels Tennis Invitational.
"It introduces us to a new world. We're not just playing the same teams in our region and our area," Allen continued. "There's that tennis side to it and then there's that social side to it that's really nice as well."
With the tournament behind them, Cass focuses its attention on the last few matches of the regular season, which ends March 31 and will be followed by the Region 7-AAAA tournament. Both the girls and boys hope to bounce back from tough region losses to Rome.
"We lost a heartbreaker against Rome last week, and we really do focus on the most important matches, which are region matches," Allen said. "We lost 3-2 on both sides, but there were definitely opportunities [to win]. ... It comes down to are you ready to play that day and take that risk."
At this point of the season, the Cass coach acknowledged, there is not much changing of identities.
"This is who we are as a team. Now all we gotta do is go out and prove who we are as a team. We did well this weekend, but we're facing a much different opponent on Tuesday and Thursday," Allen added. "Every region match is a must-win match."
The Colonels (5-4) and Lady Colonels (5-5) travel to play Sequoyah Tuesday before hosting Northwest Whitfield Thursday. Both matches begin at 4:45 p.m.
Cass was scheduled to play Excel during the weekend tournament, but both Allen and coach Mark Hibbard decided to reschedule the matchup.
"We didn't get to play Excel just because they played so many matches today," Allen said of the private school, which played three matches Saturday.
The Cass coach said the two sides could get together for a match on Friday.