The Varsity Tennis team traveled to Lynchburg on a day of extreme transitions. The thunderstorms that shook the boys out of bed had moved away and the courts were drying nicely under a gentle breeze and warm sun. As the team matches began, the breeze had turned into hard gusts, the sun had disappeared again, and the temperature was diving down through the 60’s. That weather seemed to mirror some of the boys’ performance against a tough VES squad.
At #1 Singles, Tiger Tyler Morris (New Bern, NC) moved to 2-1 for the season with a 8-2 victory over VES #1 Doug Hogan. After Hogan held serve, Morris put on the gas to hold his own serve and take advantage of the inconsistencies that come with cold and gusty weather. He jumped out to a 6-1 lead with consistent and patient play. At 6-1, Hogan rallied back, but the match ended with a series of exchanges to finish 8-2.
At #3 Singles, fellow Freshman David Kiesnowski (Appleton, WI) was in a see-saw battle with Bishop Leo Liu. Liu held serve to take a 0-1 lead. In turn, Kiesnowski held and then broke to take the next 2 games, making it 2-1. Liu rallied to do the same, making the score 2-3. The score then ratcheted up to 3-4 before Liu pulled away from a frustrated Kiesnowski 4-8.
At #6 Singles, the third Freshman on the squad, Sebastian Richardson (Charlotte, NC) battled against a steady Matt Cudd. Their match saw almost every game going to multiple deuce points. The tipping point of the match came in the 7th game. With the match score tied 3-3, Richardson was serving at 40-15. A close extended rally, a net-cord that fell the wrong way, and some double faults signalled a massive momentum change. With the match now at 3-4, Richardson was unable to regain his composure against the inexorable Cudd until it was too late. The last game looked to mirror the first with a long deuce, but the damage was done and Richardson went down 3-8.
With the team match decided, the Tigers continued on gamely. Morris and Kiesnowski put up a respectable 6-8 effort against an experienced duo in Hogan and Winsted. Aichinger and Ngabo rallied back from their personal defeats at singles to take 2 games. Abouzied paired up with Nguyen at #3 Doubles and took 2 games in their search for the nebulous “chemistry” that makes a doubles team better than its parts.
Evan Troast paired up with Richardson to get in a close exhibition doubles match at was at 6-7 before it was called due to time.
The Man of the Match was Tyler Morris. After warming up himself and teammates, he was able to formulate a rough game plan taking into account a preliminary look at the VES line-up and the court conditions. He stuck with the plan despite his natural inclination to attack more aggressively. His patience in letting points develop, a steady first serve, and judicious use of his weapons made victory look easy. As the team results showed, the results could have easily turned out differently.
Our next match will be at home against North Cross School on Tuesday, April 11. Following that match, they will travel to Carlisle’s clay courts on Thursday, April 13. Hargrave Tennis’ record is now 1-2 in VIC competition.
Individual Match Scores:
Singles
#1 – Tyler Morris v Doug Hogan 8-2
#2 – Tyler Aichinger v James Cook 0-8
#3 – David Kiesnowski v Leo Liu 4-8
#4 – Youssef Abouzied v Will Winstead 1-8
#5 – Armel Ngabo v Drennan Debose 0-8
#6 – Sebastian Richardson v Matt Cudd 3-8
Doubles
#1 – Morris and Kiesnowski v Hogan and Winstead 6-8
#2 – Aichinger and Ngabo v Cook and Stern 2-8
#3 – Abouzied and Nguyen v Liu and Scott Hong 2-8
