Soph saves Jay Co. (08/25/06)

There was no royal box, no strawberries and cream. But it was close enough to being on Centre Court for Kyle Simmons.

"That was kind of cool with everybody watching me. I felt like I was at Wimbledon almost," said Simmons, whose team needed his victory to preserve its undefeated record. "I got kind of nervous at first and then settled down. Coach told me to relax and just hit my shots."

All eyes were on Simmons and Northeastern's Max Price Thursday, left alone on the court with the match tied at two. Simmons rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, giving the Jay County boys tennis team the 3-2 victory.

"That was kind of fun to see how a new guy gets in there and handles the pressure stuff," said JCHS coach Barry Weaver of Simmons, a sophomore in his first season playing tennis. "He did an outstanding job."

With victories at No. 1 and 2 singles and losses in both doubles matches, the Patriots' perfect start to the season was in Simmons' hands. After dropping the opening set 6-4, he returned the favor in the second and took control by winning the first three games of the third set.

Simmons' win in the third game of the third set came as he charged the net, forcing Price out of his comfort zone. That pattern continued throughout the final set.

Price was able to get within 4-3 and 5-4, breaking Simmons' serve on both occasions.

But up 30-love in the next game, Simmons served notice from the net again. He blasted an overhead slam right back at Price, who had no time to react.

Simmons missed wide left on his first match-point try, but came charging to the net again on his second attempt. Price managed to return his first volley, but Simmons went down the left line on the next shot and Price could not return it.

"I was just a lot more aggressive at the net," said Simmons of the comeback from a set down. "I just started hitting my shots."

Jay County improved to 4-0 with the victory, an outstanding start despite losing three seniors from last season's school-record 12-3 squad.

"We'll take that," said Weaver. "Any time we can have success early ... I think especially our guys that haven't played before are leaning how to do positive things and do things the way we talk about in practice."

The win for the Patriots came thanks to a singles sweep with junior Josh Ludy and sophomore Phil Powell each in the driver's seat in their matches.

Ludy was up just 3-2 in his opening set before taking the next four games, ending the set with an overhead slam. He rolled out to a 4-1 advantage and finished off Northeastern senior Greg Meyer 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles.

Powell also won his first set 6-2 at No. 2 singles, then took the first four games of the second set. The Knights' Tyler Saunders, a senior, managed to get within 5-2, but Powell took control of the next game with an outstanding serve for a 40-15 lead as he finished his 6-2, 6-2 win.

"They were good and solid," said Weaver of his top two singles players. "Josh was pretty much in control right from the start.

"Phil struggled the first game or two, but then he got things going."

The Patriots struggled with inconsistency in the doubles matches.

At the No. 1 doubles position Heath Rigby and Thomas McCowan forced a first-set tiebreaker only to fall 7-5. Jacob Frame and Jordan Ross blew them off the court in the second set for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-0 final.

Mark Alberson and Adam Horn lost their first set, then rolled to a 6-0 victory in the second. But, they couldn't keep the momentum going in a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 loss to Mitch Stiner and Travis Lakes.

Junior varsity

Jay County lost both singles matches, but won the lone doubles battle against the Knights.

Jared Valentine and Michael Daniels teamed for the win, topping Shawn Tomlinson and Dalton Milner 8-4. In singles action Valentine lost 8-1 to Milner and Daniels fell 8-5 to Jacob Terhaar.[[In-content Ad]]