Union Pines ends Gryphons' tennis season
May 5, 2009 Rocky Mount High School
CAMERON - Rocky Mount's boys tennis team has overachieved all season, but its season came to an end Monday after Union Pines handed the Gryphons a 7-2 defeat in the first round of the NCHSAA 3-A dual team playoffs.
The match was moved up from Tuesday to avoid incoming rains to the area.
The Gryphons (10-6) saw Alex Durham and Ross Bradley capture wins in the singles, but they faltered in the rest of their matches. Union Pines moved to 17-1 on the season with the victory.
"The guys played about as well as they could against the seventh-ranked team in the state," said Rocky Mount head coach Barry Nethercutt. "We came within two tie-breakers (4 points) of making this a 5-4 match. Alex was outstanding at No. 1 where he avenged last year's loss to Dillan Rice with his most complete match of the season. Hopefully, he builds on that going into this weekend's regional tournament.
"Ross continued getting every ball back in play and really frustrated his guy at No. 3," he added. "We actually had four match points at No. 1 doubles, but maybe played a little tight or too loose, I am not quite sure which."
Nethercutt said that for a team that was picked to finish fifth in the conference and wound up placing second, then playing a highly-ranked team well with three new players shows what good kids Rocky Mount has and how hard they work.
NCHSAA 3-A BOYS TENNIS DUAL TEAM PLAYOFFS - FIRST ROUND
Union Pines 7, Rocky Mount 2
Singles
1. Alex Durham (RM) def. Dillan Rice 6-2, &-6 (8-6)
2. Will Fondrie (UP) def. Gavin Stone 6-2, 6-1
3. Ross Bradley (RM) def. Jake Watts 6-2, 7-5
4, Josh Bryant (UP) def. Kayshap Kaul 6-4, 6-3
5. Jay O'Conner (UP) def. John Hader 6-1, 6-0
6. Nolan Evans (UP) def. Carson Gardner 6-0. 6-0
Doubles
1. Rice/Fondrie (UP) def. Durham/Stone 11-10 (10-8)
2. Watts/O'Conner (UP) def. Bradley/Kaul 11-10 (10-8)
3. Bryant/Evans (UP) def. Hader/Gardner 10-2 |
NATIONAL
NORTH CAROLINA
