Jay stays perfect (08/26/05)

RICHMOND — Not only is the Jay County boys tennis team undefeated, but it’s won its opening three matches in impressive fashion.

The Patriots improved to 3-0 Thursday night with a 4-1 victory over the Northeastern Knights at Earlham College. In their three team matches this year they have given up just a couple of points, defeating Marion, Union City and Northeastern by a combined 13-2.

Senior No. 1 singles player Kurtis Hess turned in the third shutout of the season for Jay County. He improved to 5-1 on the year with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Ben Alyea.

Tyler Rigby and Randy Evans, the No. 1 doubles pair and the only other seniors on the team, started off slowly by losing the first two games to Alex Nocton and Justin Stiner. However, they dropped just one game the rest of the way to improve to 4-2 with a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Sophomore Joshua Ludy also improved his mark to 4-2 at No. 2 singles. He rolled over Jacob Frame 6-2, 6-1.

Freshman Phil Powell competed the singles sweep with his third win of the year, topping Max Price 6-4, 6-0.

Heath Rigby, Tyler’s brother, and Thomas McCowan got off to a fast start, opening a 5-2 lead over Ross Alexander and Jordan Ross. But they stumbled from there, losing the next 10 games in a row en route to a 7-5, 6-2 loss.

Jay County dropped two of the three junior varsity matches, with James Heare and Adam Horn losing in singles action but teaming for victory in doubles play.

Combined, they defeated Mitch Baumer and Dale Milnes 8-7 (7-3). In singles matches Heare lost to Greg Meyer 8-0 and Horn fell to Milnes 7-6 (7-3).[[In-content Ad]]