Indians eliminate Jay

MARION — The season came to a close Wednesday for the Jay County boys tennis team with a 5-0 loss to the Mississinewa Indians in the sectional tournament.
Mississinewa advances to today’s semifinal round to take on Madison-Grant. The host Marion Giants and Blackford will play in today’s other semifinal, and the championship match will be Friday.
Jordan McBride and Drew Wood were the only Patriots to win more than three games against Mississinewa, playing a three-setter at No. 2 doubles.
After dropping the opening set, McBride and Wood took the first three games of the second and rolled to a 6-1 victory. However, they dropped four of the first five in the third set to Ryan Porter and Scott Atkins and were unable to fight back in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 defeat.
“They had a real nice second set, put a lot of pressure on (the Indians), moved their feet,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver.
“And then in the third set it was kind of like, ‘I don’t want to mess up. I don’t want to hit it out.’ … The other kids I think stepped it up a little bit and our kids were playing not to lose.”
Derek Smith trailed 2-1 in the opening set of his No. 2 singles match against Dalton Miller before dropping four straight games. He again played well early in the second set, trailing 3-2, but couldn’t keep the momentum going in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat.
Chance Fuller and Joe Imel lost their No. 1 doubles match 6-0, 6-1 to Payton Scott and Collin Smith. And Brad Leuthold and Landry Inman dropped the No. 1 and 3 singles matches 6-0, 6-0 to Adam Fleming and Austin Branock respectively.
“They were consistent,” said Weaver of the Indians. “They kept the ball in play. They kept it deep, and mixed it up as far as what spins they were using. They had a lot of good top spin and then they’d hit a lot of slices. We had a hard time adjusting to it.”
Jay County finished with a 3-15 record after going 2-15 last season.[[In-content Ad]]