Giants sweep singles for victory

The Patriots shook things up.

The result was a sweep in the doubles, but they failed to find a third win match.

The Jay County High School boys tennis team couldn’t find that third win during their 3-2 loss to the Marion Giants on Thursday.

Coming into the match, the Patriots (3-6) changed their lineup up a bit. They moved three-year doubles player Sam Myers over to the No. 3 singles position. In turn, they moved Liam Garringer back to No. 2 doubles with Luke Muhlenkamp and promoted Isaac Miller to be Gage Sims’ partner in the No. 1 doubles.

“So we’ve been trying to move the lineup around. Liam (Garringer) has been moving back and forth from doubles to singles,” assistant coach Andrea Garringer said. (Coach Donald Gillespie missed the match with an illness). “Sam is a strong singles player, so we decided to try it. He fought hard.”

In Myers' debut, he fell to Marion senior Ryan Spitzer 6-3, 6-3. 

In the first set, Myers fell behind Spitzer early and wasn’t able to make a comeback. In the second, Myers had a 3-2 lead before relinquishing it by dropping four straight games.

As Myers adjusted to the smaller court, he was staying near the back line. He generated points by being aggressive. However, at times it also made him vulnerable, such as the final point of the match where Myers ran up to the net and Spitzer smoked a ball past him.

“The biggest thing for me is being more aggressive, hitting balls harder with more spin and coming to the net a lot more,” Myers said. “When I did that, I did a lot better than when I was sitting back there and just going back and forth.

“I don’t think I played terrible. It’s something to move (forward from). I’m not disappointed but we should have had that one. Just keep moving on.”

The other Patriots in singles matches struggled as well. Abraham Dirksen fell to Ryan Sebastian 6-2, 6-0 in the No. 1 singles match. In the No. 2 singles, Marion’s Elijah Maki beat Eli Dirksen 6-0, 6-0.

The Patriot’s singles players knew that they would have tall tasks, but couldn’t quite pull out the win.

“From the start, my No. 1 singles played very relaxed,” Maron coach Diana Spitzer said. “He didn’t let anything bug him. I think one and two singles just went out there and showed what they had.”

The Patriots found success at the doubles positions. The No. 2 doubles pair took care of Meetkumar Patel and Jake Wood with a 6-0, 6-3 victory.

Muhlenkamp provided a steady hand for the duo. He wasn’t trying to be over-aggressive and, in return, he made few mistakes while providing the Giants with ample opportunities to slip up. The duo at times would struggle to pull off overhead swings, but in general were solid when serving or just returning the tennis ball.

“Consistency is key,” Muhlenkamp said. “If you’re consistent, you’ll make your good shots and good shots win games.”

Sims and Miller also found success at No. 1 doubles. They topped Todd Pederson and Daniel Terhune 6-3, 6-0.

In the first set, the pair  were still getting used to being partners. As the match progressed, they started to familiarize with each other’s games and their confidence grew as they turned the heat up on the Giants.

They had a great day serving the ball up, with Sims even earning a couple of aces in the match.

Junior varsity

Blake Kahlig and Jacob Monroe both picked up wins in their matches as the team fell 4-2. Kahlig took down Marion freshman Noah Elliott 8-6 while Monroe beat Nicholas Smith 8-2.

Gabe Pinkerton had a 7-2 lead on Dylan Schuh but fell 9-7.

Dylan Chalfant fell to Chayim Hofmann 8-4.