Doubles down Indians

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The Patriots got a forfeit and started with the advantage.

The doubles teams put the squad into the final.

Jay County High School’s boys tennis team advanced to the sectional final by beating the Union City Indians 3-2 Wednesday.

“They played the way I expected them to play,” said JCHS coach Scott Miller, whose team will meet the Winchester Golden Falcons at 5 p.m. today. Winchester, which is the defending sectional champion, defeated Randolph Southern 4-1 in the other semifinal Wednesday night.

“They took care of business, so to speak,” Miller added. “They played their matches for the most part.”

The Patriots’ No. 1 doubles tandem of senior Sheldon Upp and sophomore Gavin Myers jumped on Braydon Hoggatt and Bryten Stewart by winning the first two games, but managed just one of the next three. They rebounded, however, and only lost once the remainder of the set.

Upp and Myers used their size at the net to continually smash close-range points, often having the ball sail over the fence out and out of play or sending them zooming to either of the neighboring courts.

After taking the opening game of the second set as well, they got a lead they never relinquished in their 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Darius Esparza and Frankie Crump cruised to a 6-1 victory in their first set at No. 2 doubles against Parker Kerns and Kyle Buckingham. But they got a little lackadaisical in the early goings of the second and fell behind 2-1. The Patriot duo was able to win three of the next four games and never looked back in their 6-1, 6-3 triumph.

“I think both teams in the second set, after they won the first set, maybe took a breath,” Miller said. “It only took a little bit of encouragement for them to get back on track and they they finished off really, really well in the second set and wont he way I would have liked them too.

“It’s nice for them to look good going into (Thursday).”

The doubles wins secured a spot in the finals as the Patriots received a forfeit at No. 1 singles. John Carpenter of Union City was unable to play because of disciplinary reasons, therefore giving Jay County sophomore Crosby Heniser the win and the Patriots the 1-0 advantage before competition in the other four matches began.

Jay County’s No. 2 singles player, freshman Simon Dirksen, lost to Tanner Spence 6-3, 6-2, and Patriot senior Christian Romero lost to Cale Jeffris at No. 3 singles by a 6-4, 6-4 score.

Despite their losses, however, Miller noted the continued improvement of Dirksen and Romero.

“We are right where I would want us to be at this point in the season,” he said, mentioning he’s put a focus on gaining individual skills, improving service percentage and taking higher percentage shots.

“I’ve seen a lot of improvement across the whole team that way,” he added. “Now we’re to the end of the season and we’re playing in a sectional championship (Thursday) night against Winchester …

“I give us a puncher’s chance (Thursday) going into our match. We’ll go out there, we’ll play our best tennis and hope for good things to happen.”

As for what Miller says it’ll take to reverse the 4-1 margin by which Winchester won when they met on Sept. 9? Confidence.

“I put that on me,” he said. “I have to convince them (Thursday) that they really do have a chance to win this match.”

Randolph Southern’s No. 1 doubles team of Colton Fisher and Jake Good advanced to the individual sectional tournament next week at Marion after defeating Winchester’s Grant Wagner and Levi Slusher on Wednesday.