Trojans Down Clover

What a match that played out tonight at the Northwestern tennis courts tonight between the Trojans and the Eagles from Clover. It was another match that played out to the very end with multiple matches ending in match tiebreakers ended with another team win for the Trojans tonight. The win puts us at 3-0 overall and gives us a 2-0 mark in region 3-AAAA and the early first place position to ourselves.

Jordan Beaver played near flawless tennis tonight at 5 singles. He controlled the match from beginning to end against P Smith for the Eagles and was the first win for us tonight with a shut out score of 6-0, 6-0.

Seth Russell sent a statement to the entire region tonight with his performance tonight at 1 singles that he is the top player in the region this year. Decker from Clover had no answer for Seth's precision and power in the match and he claimed our second win by score of 6-1, 6-1 at the top spot.

The next match to finish was our 2 doubles team of Michael Baldwin and Chris Cassidy. The Eagles paired up last year's region player of the year, Altieri, with G Smith. Altieri is recovering from some shoulder problems that affect his ability to serve. However, he still plays terrific tennis with groundstrokes & net play and was too good for us tonight. The line dropped for us by score of 2-6, 2-6, but it is nothing for us to hang our heads about. The fact that Altieri played down in their lineup (which is completely legal how Clover did it) ended up working in our favor in the singles lines.

After these three matches finished we were ahead in the team match count 2 to 1. Hunter Love and Drayton Wade had claimed first sets at 2 and 3 singles by identical 6-2 margins. John Clark had dropped a long and tightly contested first set 6-4. I liked our chances at this point, but I was still nervous as all three matches were having close fought second sets.

John was able to win his second set 6-2, while Hunter and Drayton each dropped theirs. All three went into tiebreakers at nearly the same time. The first to finish was Hunter which unfortunately did not go in our favor and the match was now knotted 2 all. John was able to win his tiebreak for the line 4 win to push us back ahead 3 to 2. And then there was only Drayton left on the court.

The first two changeovers in the line 3 tiebreak were fairly tight, but Drayton trailed 5-7 at this point. Deahl of Clover looked to take control as the momentum swayed his way and he had two match points against Drayton as the score went against us 7-9. From there on out, it was all D-Wade. He won the next four points to give himself the win at line 3 and the Trojans the match.

We posted a shutout against the varsity reserves from Clover. Collins Mauldin won 8-3, Tyler Leonard 8-2, and Daniel Hawkins 8-0. Unfortunately, Clover only had ten players and we took forfeit wins for Key Barkley and Wesley Matthews.

We don't have time to rest much after this exciting match tonight. Byrnes will be at our courts for the first round matchup in the Trojan/Stallion Invitational tomorrow at 2PM. We then play Fort Mill Saturday morning at 9AM for our last round robin match to determine whether we play for 1st, 3rd, or 5th place in the 2PM Saturday final round. I know the boys are hungry to play for 1st, as am I.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, Clover 2

1s: Seth Russell (N) def Will Decker 6-1, 6-1
2s: Tucker DeLoach (C) def Hunter Love 2-6, 6-3, 10-4
3s: Drayton Wade (N) def Nick Deahl 6-2, 5-7, 11-9
4s: John Clark (N) def JC Dougherty 4-6, 6-2, 10-6
5s: Jordan Beaver (N) def Patrick Smith 6-0, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Chase Altieri/Garrett Smith (C) def Michael Baldwin/Chris Cassidy 6-2, 6-2

Records: Northwestern 3-0, 2-0 Region 3AAAA, Clover 2-1, 1-1 Region 3AAAA