A 'Giant' elimination (09/30/05)

MARION — This year’s Jay County boys tennis team now has all of the 2002 squad’s records. Now it wants a sectional title as well.

The Patriots, who broke the school’s regular-season wins record a week ago, snapped the overall mark in the opening round of sectional play Thursday with a 5-0 destruction of the host Marion Giants.

They are now 13-3 on the season, having broken the 2002 team’s marks of 10 regular-season wins and 12 total victories. The 2002 team also won a sectional title, and that is the next target on the horizon for the boys of 2005.

First the Patriots will need to get past Blackford, a team it defeated 4-1 in the regular-season, today at 4 p.m. If they do, they will play the winner of today’s Mississinewa/Madison-Grant match in the championship round Saturday at 10 a.m.

“We can’t come into Blackford thinking, ‘We beat them already,’” said Jay County coach Barry Weaver, remembering the Bruins upsetting his squad in the semifinal round last season. “We want to make sure we get it one step at a time.”

The Patriots took their Giant step Thursday, smashing Marion with relative ease.

Kurt Hess served up a shutout against Tyler Edmonds for his 15th win of the season. He finished off the first set thanks to a couple of great cross court winners, and took second on a couple of Edmonds errors for the 6-0, 6-0 victory.

Jay County’s other seniors, No. 1 doubles pair Tyler Rigby and Randy Evans (16-3), were off the court in a hurry as well as they clobbered Ryan Wright and Kyle Carter. The Patriot pair won the first 11 games of the match before Wright and Carter broke through, but their rally was brief as Evans and Rigby won 6-0, 6-1.

Weaver said it took his seniors some time to find a groove, but they rolled once they did.

“Overall I’m real pleased with those guys,” said Weaver. “I hope they can continue that on the rest of this week.”

Freshman Phil Powell continued his impressive first season by clinching the victory for Jay County. After dropping the first game of his match against Jiger Patel he won 12 of the next 13 for a dominating 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Powell is now 10-8 on the year.

Josh Ludy took the first set 6-3 at No. 2 singles, then rolled to a 5-0 lead in the second set. He dropped game six of the second set on a double fault, but bounced back to break Ryan Newton’s serve in the next game to win 6-3, 6-1.

“That was about as relaxed as I’ve ever seen Josh play,” said Weaver of the sophomore who improved to 11-8. “He looked in control the whole way through.

“Phil did too after that first game. I’m glad to see him come back and be positive.”

Jay County No. 2 doubles pair Heath Rigby and Thomas McCowan completed the Patriot sweep, but they needed to battle through the first set to do it. They held a slim advantage the whole way, but ended up tied with Kevin Aaron and Max Fisher at 6-6 to force a tiebreaker.

After trailing 2-1, Rigby and McCowan won the next four points and eventually took the tiebreaker 7-5 when the Giants were unable to return Rigby’s serve.

The Patriots controlled the second set, ending it on an ace by McCowan for the 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win.[[In-content Ad]]