Favorites in the final

The defending champions are back in the final.

Jay County High School’s boys tennis team held off the Randolph Southern Rebels on Wednesday for a 3-2 victory in the sectional semifinal it hosted.

“I’m proud of the kids,” said first-year JCHS coach Donald Gillespie, whose team won the 2020 title and will defend it against Union City — the Indians topped Winchester 4-1 in the other semifinal —  in the championship tonight. The Patriots defeated all three sectional rivals during the regular season. “It was 3-2 last time we played Randolph Southern.

“They are a good team. The same players won and the same players lost.”

In the No. 2 doubles spot, which has been a revolving door of combinations for the Patriots (11-7), sophomores Gage Sims and Luke Muhlenkamp teamed up during the regular season against each of the team’s sectional rivals — Winchester, Union City and Randolph Southern — and emerged victorious in each respective match.

So for the sectional tournament, Gillespie kept them together, and they made quick work of Rebel opponents Trenton Jeffries and Jaxson Latellow. The Patriot tandem won 6-1, 6-1 and were the first match off the court.

“Very happy with that,” Gillespie said of Sims and Muhlenkamp. “They have really come together. If they stick to the game plan they’ll be fine (in the final). I expect a win out of them.”

Crosby Heniser, the Patriots’ No. 1 singles player, and Abraham Dirksen at No. 2 singles finished off their opponents a short time after the second doubles team to secure the championship berth.

Heniser, a senior, defeated Jake Good in the first set 6-1 and had a 5-0 lead in the second. Good, however, refused to lose, and, in part because of some uncharacteristic mistakes on the night for Heniser, won three straight games in set two.

But Good double faulted on match point to give Heniser the win.

Dirksen led Jake Mifsud by a 4-1 margin in the opening set of their match before Mifsud won two of the next three games. Dirksen, a sophomore, won the set 6-3, and cruised to a 6-1 win in the second for the win.

Jay County’s No. 1 doubles team, brothers Gavin and Sam Myers, lost to Hagan Gambrel and Vance Taylor during their Sept. 7 meeting. On Wednesday, however, the brothers came out aggressive and didn’t surrender a game in the first set.

They got a little too relaxed from there and were not able to keep up the pressure. Gambrel and Vance won the second set 6-2 to force a third, and took that one by the same margin for the Rebels’ first win of the night.

It left Gavin, a senior, fuming after the loss.

“They got blitzed the first time they played them,” Gillespie said. “They came out smoking in the first set (and) struggled in the second and third set.”

Then as the final match to take to the court and even though the overall outcome was already determined, Jay County junior Simon Dirksen fought more than Tyler Fink in their No. 3 singles tilt; he had been nursing a cold for more than a week.

Fink blazed his way to a 6-0 win in the first set, but Dirksen took the second 7-6 (7-1) to force the third. Despite being the last ones on the court, neither Dirksen or Fink gave way. They were consistent in returning shots back to the middle of the court, forcing the other to make a mistake.

Down 3-2, Dirksen won the next two games for a 4-3 advantage. Fink returned the favor with back-to-back wins to go ahead 5-4. The 10th game, which took more than 15 minutes and featured seven deuces, went to Fink.

“We just witnessed a long three-setter,” Gillespie said. The Dirksen-Fink contest concluded at 8:44 p.m., nearly four hours after tournament play began. “(Dirksen) said his legs were cramping.”

Jay County, which will be seeking its eighth sectional title, swept Union City 5-0 when they met during the regular season on Aug. 23.

“We are going to have to be on our A-game tomorrow,” Gillespie said. “Union City is a very good team. We know that.”