Jay falls to Tigers

Derek Smith cruised in his match Thursday and Brad Leuthold put up a tremendous fight at No. 1 singles. But the Patriots still came away on the losing end.
Smith’s victory at No. 2 singles was the lone win of the day for the Jay County boys tennis team in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Bluffton Tigers.
“I thought we played like we had a little bit of rust on us, especially to start,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver. “And then as the night went on we got some of that worked out I think. … Overall there are some places where we’re improving and there are some places where we have yet to figure it out.”
Smith dominated at No. 2 singles, winning the first set in shutout fashion over Brandon Baumgartner. He took the first two games of the second set and led 5-1 before finishing off a 6-0, 6-1 victory on back to back Baumgartner errors.
“He continues to get better,” said Weaver of Smith. “Derek has a lot of real strength in his shots. … He’s learned how to use the forehand, and he’s picking up the backhand as we go. … His game is coming along.”
Leuthold struggled in his opening set against Damon Kuhlenbeck, but won the first game of the second to start a two-set, back-and-forth battled. He fell behind 5-4 in the second set before taking three straight games — he finished the last by tracking down a volley and hitting a perfect lob for a winner — to force a third set.
The JCHS junior again fell behind, this time 5-3, before rallying to force a tiebreaker. The match just barely slipped away, however, as Kuhlenbeck survived for a 6-0, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) win.
“When he went out for the first set he was trying to force things and trying to do too much,” said Weaver. “In the second set I felt like he relaxed and started to do what he knew he could do and kept chipping away at it. And then in the third set he was down 5-3 and kept battling the whole way. If there is such a thing as a good loss, I think that was one of them. I hope he learned some good things from it. … It’s not over. Even if you get blanked in the first set, you can still be in it.”
Joe Imel and Drew Wood dominated the first set at No. 2 doubles, but struggled the rest of the way in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat. Chance Fuller and Jordan McBride lost 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles, and Morton Garringer fell 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.

Junior varsity
Jay County lost a match that included seven singles matches and four doubles match 7-4 to the Tigers.
Landry Inman led the Patriots with his victory at No. 1 singles, topping Jake Garrett 8-7 (8-6). Other wins came from Tony Schwieterman, Kody Degler and the team of Josh Lykins and Blake Boughman.[[In-content Ad]]