WHITEHALL — Whitehall had a chance to earn a big local victory over
Reeths-Puffer Thursday afternoon, but the Rockets came out with a
closely contested 5-3 victory.
"The guys played well, but
ended up losing three of the five tiebreaking third sets," Whitehall
coach Greg McManus said. "That was the difference between winning and
losing the match."
The Rockets had one major advantage as
William Burger was unavailable to face off with Ethan Frang at the No. 1
singles flight. Burger was at the Whitehall courts to watch the match,
but Frang defeated Ryne Nicholas 6-0, 6-0 in that flight. The two
players good-naturedly bantered throughout their match.
R-P,
in fact, won all four of the singles matches, though two of them
required a third-set tiebreaker. Quinn Alderink edged Brady Tate 7-6(3),
2-6, 10-5 in the No. 2 singles flight, and Cory Judd rallied from a
first-set defeat to beat Evan Schuitema 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 in the No. 3
singles flight. Adam Miller completed the singles sweep for the Rockets
by beating Cameron Cook 6-0, 6-2.
Whitehall's season-long
success in the doubles flights continued with wins in three of the four
flights. The Vikes' top two pairs, Patrick Cole/Ian Sampson and Jon
Hall/Myles Welch, both came out on top. Cole/Sampson earned an
impressive 6-0, 6-1 win over Trent VanDam/Holden Earnest, and Hall/Welch
beat Erik Trulsen/Henrik Ketner in a three-set battle, 6-3, 1-6, 10-7.
Jackson
Baldus/Leo Kretschmar lost the first set to Adam Sikkenga/Remington
Whelpley but rallied for a win in the third-set tiebreaker, 6-7(3), 6-2,
10-7. The Vikings' Evan Thomas/Elijah Roberge finished strong in their
own tiebreaker, defeating Preston Singleton/Kaden Marshal at No. 4
doubles, 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 10-1.
