JCHS falls to Tigers

With the sectional tournament just a week away, the Patriots are still looking for answers.
The Jay County High School boys tennis team, which will host the tournament Sept. 28 through 30, dropped its fifth straight match Wednesday 4-1 to the visiting Bluffton Tigers.
And the remaining matches won’t be any easier for the Patriots, who visit a 10-win South Adams team tonight. They will close the regular-season Tuesday against Bellmont, which defeated the Starfires last week.
“Hopefully we’re getting ready for next week,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver, whose team’s last win came Sept. 10 over Muncie Southside. “But at the same time, it’s kind of a battle to keep the old chin off the ground.
“I think what we’ve got to do is just be excited to play … and try to do your best on every shot. I think they’re trying to do that.”
The bright spot of the evening Tuesday came from Josh Martin, who picked up the first contested victory of his career to earn the lone point for the Patriots (4-10). He had a win by forfeit earlier in the season.
Martin trailed early in his No. 3 singles match against Carson Addington, and was down 5-4 with the first set on the line. He pulled even on a double fault and took the set two games later when he broke Addington’s serve at love.
The junior took the opening game of the second set and never trailed, eventually finishing off Addington with a winner down the left side.
“Josh is learning what he can and can’t do,” said Weaver. “He knows he’s not the fastest guy on the court, so he’s got to make the other guy do some things … and move him from side to side.
“That was a great win for him.”
Chance Fuller and Landry Inman rallied from a first-set defeat to force a third at No. 1 doubles, but couldn’t keep the momentum going.
With the deciding set against Alex Penrod and Jake Garrett tied at 3-3, the seventh game went back-and-forth at deuce. Penrod eventually won the game for the Tigers with a lob to the right corner, and they went on to take the next two games to beat Fuller and Inman 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Derek Smith faced a similar situation in the second set at No. 1 singles. He fought back from three-game deficit to close to within 4-3, but then dropped the eighth game after several trips to deuce on the way to a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Damon Kuhlenbeck.
“Those are the things that are very difficult to try to keep up from,” said Weaver. “But at the same time you’re not always going to win those long games …
“Almost always when we’re in a real close game that lasts a long time, if we lose it then we tend to have that let down. … A lot of it is momentum, and you’ve got to do some things to change the momentum back to your side of the court.”
Brad Leuthold of the Patriots was competitive in both sets at No. 2 singles, leading the first 2-1 before dropping five of the next six games. He went on to suffer a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Brendan Baumgartner.
Morton Garringer and Tony Schwieterman fell 6-3, 6-0 to Jacob Antrim and Jackson Lambert at No. 2 doubles.

Junior varsity
The Patriots cruised to a 6-2 victory over Bluffton with Zach Pryor leading the way.
Pryor dominated his matched at No. 3 singles for an 8-0 victory over Sam Dedrick. Other singles wins came from Josh Lykins and Matt Shrack.
The teams of Evan Mathias and Jake Schwieterman, Shawn Homan and Preston Overholser, and Alex Krieg and Garhett Blackford each picked up victories in doubles action.[[In-content Ad]]