River Bluff’s boys tennis team may have had its region championship streak snapped, but the Gators are still heading into the postseason with confidence. 

With a young core and an elite player in the No. 1 spot, head coach Brad McKinney believes his team has what it takes to make a deep playoff run. 

Depth was a key factor to the team’s success all year, and McKinney said his team has solid players all around. Whether it’s Gavin Hartman, Jonathan Roquemore, Fernando Castro or Gabe Conner stepping onto the court, River Bluff found production up and down the lineup.

“ There's not a whole lot of difference between those four guys who are playing singles,” McKinney said. “ Two through seven, there's not a lot of drop off, and that's helped us a lot.” 

While the Gators found consistency throughout the lineup, they’re anchored by one of the top players in the state, Braydon Jeffcoat. 

The junior is already a two-time Region Player of the Year and earned a spot on the All-State team last season. He qualified for the individual tournament championships and advanced all the way to the quarterfinals. 

“ It's nice to have that at the top of your lineup when you know that you have one of the best players in the Midlands anchoring the lineup,” McKinney said. “ He's undefeated in region, so he's probably got a good chance to hopefully repeat as Region Player of the Year and get back in that state singles tournament again to see if he can advance a little further.”

Before turning to the postseason, River Bluff had to wrap up its region season. 

The Gators have become accustomed to finishing at the top of the standings, but this year, Lexington came from behind and knocked them off the throne. 

The Wildcats dominated in the first of two matches, beating the Gators 5-1. Jeffcoat was the only River Bluff player to win his match. 

“ We did not play well that night. We had a lot of unforced errors,” McKinney said. “It's the Lexington match, so the emotions of that match are high on both sides. I think that led to some of our unforced errors, granted, Lexington played well. They did, they did play well that night, so that combination.”

The two teams met again in the regular season finale last week. This time the match was much closer, but the end result was still the same. 

Lexington won 4-3 to sweep the Gators and win the region championship. River Bluff won three of the five singles matches, but Lexington claimed both doubles matches to take the win. 

While the results weren’t favorable, McKinney said he wanted his players to show more emotional control, reduce the errors and make Lexington earn it. They did succeed in doing that.

With the regular season behind them, the Gators will now prepare for their run in the playoffs.

The Gators are the No. 5 seed in the Lower State bracket and hosted Fort Dorchester in the first round on Tuesday. 

River Bluff dominated that match, winning 6-0.  The team will hit the road Thursday for its second-round game against Carolina Forest. 

River Bluff’s entire season has been building to this moment. McKinney purposely tested his team in the non-region slate to prepare for the playoffs. The battles in the region also gave the team a taste of high-intensity matches. 

 ”We want to challenge ourselves, so that when it comes playoff time, we have already played those good teams,” McKinney said. “ Hopefully, us and Lexington, with the battles that we've had this year, it will help both of us make a pathway through the tournament.” 

Regardless of how things turn out for the Gators this year, the team will return most of its players in 2027. River Bluff has just one senior who will need replacing in the lineup.

Jeffcoat and the majority of the contributors are juniors, giving the group another year to develop.

“We get all these guys back now, most of them are juniors, so next year's going to be it,” McKinney said. “After that, it's probably going to be a complete rebuild.”