The Varsity squad welcomed a confident Appomattox County High School (Appomattox County Courthouse, VA) squad to the Landon Tennis Center. Senior Reid Dantonio matched up against ACHS senior Brandon Hedrick in a close match. Dantonio worked back from a 1-3 deficit to eventually close to 9-9, but was unable to use his strength to develop a decisive advantage over Hedrick’s point development, finally falling in a 2-7 tie-breaker. Frankie Chang was unable to counter Justin Lawson’s strong first serve and flat return game. At third singles, Haotian Liu posted the only Tiger singles victory against a scrappy Adam Swanson. Rafael Tudela and Turner Wall each had long matches, but were outlasted by their opponents. Weian Chen struggled with Zach Burge, but showed some good tennisonce points were underway.
On the doubles side, the Tigers rallied back although the outcome of the team match was no longer in question. Showing good teamwork, the duo’s all jumped out to small leads. Dantonio/Kim (#1 doubles) and Liu/Chen (#3 doubles) never looked back to each post 8-4 victories. Tudela and Wall were unable to capitalize on their early lead and succombed to a strong ACHS service game.
Tigers Walter Kasica, Chase Cooper, Taylor Dobbins, Chaz Mulligan, and Zach Gjenasajz were able to get in some solid exhibition play and experience in singles and doubles play.
Individual Match Scores:
Singles
#1 – Reid Dantonio v Brian Hedrick : 10-10 (2-7)
#2 – Frankie Chang v Justin Lawson : 1-10
#3 – Haotian Liu v Adam Swanson : 10-3
#4 – Rafael Tudela v Zach Taylor : 7-10
#5 – Turner Wall v Dylan Slayton : 8-10
#6 – Weian Chen v Zach Burge : 2-10
Doubles
#1 – Dantonio and Kim v Hedrick and Swanson : 8-4
#2 – Tudela and Wall v Lawson and Slayton : 5-8
#3 – Liu and Chen v Taylor and Burge : 8-4
