July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Stars overwhelm Jay Co. (09/09/04)

JCHS boys tennis
Stars overwhelm Jay Co. (09/09/04)
Stars overwhelm Jay Co. (09/09/04)

By By RAY [email protected]

PORTLAND — The Patriots often didn’t play very well in Wednesday’s windy conditions. So the Starfires blew them off the court.

South Adams’ boys tennis team visited Jay County and walked away with a 4-1 victory.

Three of those matches went in fairly quick fashion, with the Starfires’ Brand Liechty topping Matthias Scherer 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Brett Zurcher topping Jeff Sims 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles. Carson Sprunger and Lee Hoeppner put Adam Arnold and Travis Smith away by a 6-2, 6-3 count.

Jay County (4-4) has still yet to get a victory at the No. 2 or 3 singles positions this year. The match against South Adams was the first varsity action for Scherer.

“Everybody (except the No. 1s) just really struggled,” said Jay County coach Barry Weaver. “They couldn’t find a serve. They had trouble with volleys and hitting the ball on the run.

“We just didn’t handle things well as far as the differing conditions than we’re used to. We didn’t hang in there.

“No. 2 doubles really struggled. They just looked rusty.”

But, with those matches over and the team result already decided, the No. 1s made it an interesting evening.

Kurtis Hess (10-1) at No. 1 singles and the team of Tyler Rigby and Randy Evans and No. 1 doubles each dropped the first set. But they rallied back to force a pair of third sets, which would eventually lead to two third-set tiebreakers.

Hess, who lost the first set 6-3 to Tony VanGelder and rolled in the second 6-0, traded games to a 5-4 disadvantage in the third set. He won the next two for a 6-5 lead, but lost at love as he served for the victory.

Hess trailed VanGelder 3-1 in the tiebreaker, but grabbed the next three points to retake the lead. He finally finished off a 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) victory when a VanGelder shot went wide right, which was typical of a tiebreaker in which almost every point was scored on an unforced error.

“Kurt played well enough to win, but didn’t particularly play well,” said Weaver. “He didn’t stay aggressive. When he stayed aggressive he won the set 6-0.”

Rigby and Evans turned in the best point of the year during the second set against Thoams Masterson and Jay Schwartz, and then nearly pulled off an incredible comeback in the third.

Leading 5-4 in the second set and tied at 15-15 in the game as they tried to force a third set, Rigby ran back to track down a South Adams lob. He did successfully, but slid and jammed his foot under the fence surrounding the court.

With his partner stuck, Evans returned one shot and then won the point as the lone Patriot standing when the Starfires knocked the next one long. Once a group of several fans dislodged Rigby, Jay County won the next two points to force a third set.

Evans and Rigby went down 5-2 and were facing match point in the third set before they got the fire going again. Apparently believing their coach’s repeated mantra — “It’s not over. Play to win.” — they came roaring back.

After a double fault, Evans bounced back with a devastating serve to get the game back to deuce. He and Rigby won two more points in a row to escape the game and swipe the momentum.

The Patriot pair rolled through the next game to cut the deficit to 5-4, and evened the set at 5-5 when a South Adams shot flew long to end the 10th game.

The Starfires jumped ahead 6-5, but Evans and Rigby would not go away as they won the 12th game to force a tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker was tied at 3-3, but Jay County would never lead again after a double fault by Evans. It trailed 6-4, got the next point on an Evans slam, but dropped a heartbreaker 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 (7-5) when an Evans shot went long.

Rigby and Evans dropped to 9-2 on the year with the loss.

“They got right back into it and did all the things that they know they can,” said Weaver of the comeback from match point. “The character showed through.

“They know how to win, they know how to play hard and how to work at it and that’s what they did. They got right back into a situation where they had an opportunity to win the match. That’s all you can hope for.

“Sometimes you’re going to get it and sometimes it’s going to get you, but if you don’t work hard and believe in yourself enough to get in those positions you’re never going to win.”

Jay County will try to jump back above .500 today when it hosts Bluffton at 4:30 p.m.

Junior varsity

South Adams dominated the junior varsity matches, taking all six to drop the Patriots to 3-5 this season.

Jay County stayed close in three matches, with No. 1 singles player Josh Ludy falling to Brent Bauman 8-6. James Heare and Thomas Shrack lost to Paul Circle and Cory Sprunger by the same score at No. 2 doubles, as did Charlie Abbott and Ryan Sutton to Geoff Wheeler and Brett Wagner at No. 3 doubles.

Todd McCowan and Thomas McCowan dropped the No. 1 doubles match by an 8-4 count to Drew Dull and Travis Geisel.

In other singles matches Jason Crouch lost to Cody Ross 8-2, and Jared Shrack fell to Carter Sprunger 8-0.[[In-content Ad]]
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