Trojans Improve Region Record to 5-3 with Win over York

It was a great night for tennis at Northwestern. We had perfect weather and near flawless tennis was played by the Trojans tonight. We played down a man tonight with John Clark having sprained or broken his left ankle in practice last night, but we still dominated from top to bottom.


The victory over York gives us an overall record of 9-3 and we sit firmly in third place at this point courtesy of a Nation Ford (7-1) win over Clover (4-4) tonight. Fort Mill (6-2) is temporarily ahead of us in second. We can tie for second place with a win at Fort Mill next Tuesday & we would have the tiebreak edge over them due to our best region win (Nation Ford) being better than their best region win (Clover).


Jordan Beaver bumped up from his normal #5 spot to #4 in place of John. He posted similar results as we are accustomed to seeing out of him and swept both sets against Patrick of York.


Chris Cassidy (pictured right) entered the lineup at #5 singles in place of Jordan's vacated #5 spot. The boy was up for the challenge. Only 2 games were surrendered to Stowe of the Cougars as Chris gave us a solid W.

Our doubles team of Collins Mauldin & Michael Baldwin were informed by me that they are currently undefeated when playing together this season and are likely contenders for all-region status, should they continue their dominance over our next three region foes. They responded huge and shutout the team from York of Womble & Sanford.

Our top 3, Seth Russell @ 1, Drayton Wade @2, and Hunter Love @3 were all solid and posted victories in straight sets while only surrendering 11 total games between the three lines to the Cougars.



We are without a doubt the deepest team in Region 3-AAAA. We secured reserve singles wins by Tyler Leonard (8-0), Brian Fitzpatrick (8-1), Key Barkley (8-3), Daniel Hawkins, pictured left (8-0), and Ben Barkley (8-0). Daniel & Key teamed up for a doubles shutout (8-0) and the Schroeder brothers, Collin & Jacob, got in the mix for an 8-6 win as well.



Fort Mill is next and revenge should be on our minds. Fort Mill got us early in a tight contest that was decided on two tiebreaker matches, which we dropped both. You can bet your buns that we will be doing a lot of tiebreakers in practice on Monday to prepare ourselves to take claim to the second seed and secure a home playoff match for the first time in the last 4 years.


Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 6, York 0

Singles
1- Seth Russell def Chris Suggs 6-0, 6-2
2- Drayton Wade def Jensen Fisk 6-1, 6-2
3- Hunter Love def Kyle Spears 6-1, 7-5
4- Jordan Beaver def Nathan Patrick 6-0, 6-0
5- Chris Cassidy def Andrew Stowe 6-1, 6-1

Doubles
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin def Charlie Womble/Will Sanford 6-0, 6-0

Trojans Drop Region Match to Clover

This was a forgettable match for us. We drop into third with now a 4-3 region record and an 8-3 mark over all.

Location: Clover
Result: Clover 5, Northwestern 1

Singles
1- Chase Altieri def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-0
2- Will Decker def Drayton Wade 2-6, 6-4, 10-4
3- Nick Deahl def Hunter Love 7-5, 6-1
4- Tucker Deloach def John Clark 6-2, 6-2
5- JC Dougherty def Jordan Beaver 0-6, 6-2, 10-4

Doubles
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (N) def Garrett Smith/Patrick Smith 6-2, 6-4

Trojans Defeat Rival Bearcats

I can't say it was the prettiest tennis to ever be played on the Northwestern courts, but it was good enough to win tonight as we defeated Rock Hill HS 4 matches to 2. The win improves our overall record to 8-2 overall and we remain 4-2 in our region. Our match at Clover tomorrow will require us to raise our game a couple notches in order to improve our region record.

Jordan Beaver (pictured right) at 5 singles was the first to finish and did so in winning fashion. Jordan went up early in the first set against Adams of Rock Hill and claimed the first set 6-0. The second set was a little tighter and Jordan finished it off 6-4 in the end.

Hunter Love cleared court 3 next with our second victory of the night. Hunter played near flawless in the first set against Silverman of Rock Hill, a very steady and consistent player. The second set played on serve until Hunter took his serve at 3-4. Hunter held serve, broke Silverman, and held again to close out the match and the second team victory.

Seth Russell finished next at 1 singles. Something was goofy in the first set as Seth fell behind quickly to his long time friend and rival, Lee for the Bearcats. Seth played better in the second set in stretches, but it wasn't enough to force a tiebreak and Rock Hill took their first win.

We then had two matches go into tiebreakers at nearly the same time. John Clark had claimed a quick first set at 4 singles before dropping the second. The doubles team of Tyler Leonard & Collins Mauldin (pictured at bottom) had dropped their first set before making a comeback in the second.

Coach: "John, hit like you do in warm ups and stop pushing balls down the middle."
John: "OK"
Tiebreaker score - 10-5 for John

Tyler and Collins had gotten on a roll in the second set and the momentum carried through the tiebreaker as they also won by score of 10-5. The doubles victory was the clinching 4th win for us.

Drayton Wade remained on the court at 2 singles. Drayton played possibly the best tennis I have ever seen him play in the first set. He made excellent decisions and executed in almost every situation. The second set turned in the favor of MacGlauchlin of Rock Hill's favor as he began to dictate the tempo a little more and claimed the second set. The tiebreaker was lopsided at first until Drayton made a late charge. It wasn't enough and Rock Hill claimed it's second point of the night.

Off to Clover tomorrow we go. This will be an improved Clover team than we played the first time through. Their top player is now playing singles and I assume he will play at the top of their lineup. We will probably face new opponents at every court. Anything less than our best effort will not be enough if we wish to remain in second place in region 3-AAAA all by ourselves.

CN2 coverage (click on April 13th Sports Roundup):

http://www.cn2.com/web/guest/sports;jsessionid=A60A7C1F3999C9A6528AA986A71B7FCF

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, Rock Hill 2

Singles
1 - Austin Lee (R) def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-4
2 - Alik MacGlauchlin (R) def Drayton Wade 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
3 - Hunter Love def Alex Silverman 6-1, 6-4
4 - John Clark def Nick Cauthen 6-2, 3-6, 10-5
5 - Jordan Beaver def Mike Adams 6-0, 6-4

Doubles
1 - DNP
2 - Collins Mauldin / Tyler Leonard def Austin Shore / Tony Ly 4-6, 6-3, 10-5