Favored for a seventh

The Patriots beat one sectional rival, Union City, more than three weeks ago.

They outlasted another, Randolph Southern, last week.

On their home court, the Patriots took down the two-time defending sectional champion Thursday.

A quick match at No. 1 doubles and a bit of resilience at No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles helped the Jay County High School boys tennis team become the sectional favorite with a 4-1 victory against the Winchester Golden Falcons.

“I feel like we’re going to come away from tonight feeling pretty good about our outlook heading into sectional in a couple weeks,” said JCHS coach Scott Miller, whose team improves to 7-6 on the year and hosts the sectional tournament beginning Sept. 30.

Jay County’s No. 1 doubles team of Frankie Crump and Gavin Myers were hardly challenged in their match, defeating Michael Neville and Jamison Beshears by a 6-1, 6-1 score. Their contest was done in less than 45 minutes, and the manner in which they played got approval from their coach.

“If my No. 1 doubles team is having fun, if they’re smiling, then they’re probably playing well,” Miller said, noting their focus was to have very few double faults, a goal they accomplished. “It goes hand-in-hand — if they’re having fun they play well. If they play well they’re having fun.”

While Crump and Myers still had a handful of double faults, it didn’t have a major impact on their match. But Miller knows when it comes to crunch time, those so-called free points can add up quickly and work against them.

“They have to clean that up because they can’t just give points to these teams, especially teams in our sectional,” Miller said. “You cannot give them free points because that’s how they’re going to beat us.”

Like their top teammates, Darius Esparza and Sam Myers cruised to a 6-1 win in the opening set of their No. 2 doubles match. However, they fell behind two games to one in the second set and had to rally back. They forced a tiebreak, and won it handily 7-3 for the 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) match victory.

In the longest match of the night, Simon Dirksen also needed a tiebreak to put away Ethan McHolland at No. 2 singles. The Jay County sophomore survived his counterpart, who played almost an identical style in terms of not being overly aggressive and waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, in taking the first set 7-5.

The second set had McHolland on the verge of forcing a third set with a 5-2 lead, but Dirksen wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Dirksen came all the way back, and he also handled the tiebreaker with ease in winning 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

“Very pleased with the effort out of (them) down the stretch,” Miller said of his No. 2 positions. “Just for (Dirksen) to get to a tiebreaker was a battle for him … (No. 2 doubles will) come away from that feeling pretty good, too.”

Abraham Dirksen, Simon’s cousin, handled Trey Pullins in their No. 3 singles match, 6-3, 6-1. And at No. 1 singles, junior Crosby Heniser lost a hotly contested, sometimes chippy match with Drew Loyd, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Since Jay County’s last sectional title in 2014, Winchester had won four of five with Union City claiming the championship in 2017. Having beaten all three sectional rivals this season, Miller and the Patriots are now favored to claim their seventh crown in program history. But given how close three of the five matches — all JCHS wins — were Thursday, Miller isn’t clearing a spot in the trophy case for more hardware just yet.

“I will say, watching this match, if things don’t break our way in two weeks … there’s three matches right there that if they go Winchester’s way we lose,” he said. “It’s not a foregone conclusion, there’s no doubt about that. We’re going to have to come to sectional ready to play.”

Jay County’s junior varsity team didn’t lose a game in beating the Golden Falcons, 3-0.

Soichiro Oyama defeated Cade Tueker 6-0, and Logan McGinnis deposited of Hayden Kisgen 6-0. Austin Dirksen and Isaac Miller beat Kisgen and Tueker, 6-0.