PILOT MOUNTAIN — The only two tennis teams still unbeaten in the Foothills 2A Conference met Monday with the conference’s top spot on the line.
East Surry and Surry Central are both on a crusade for their first conference championship in more than a decade. Both the Cardinals and Golden Eagles were 4-0 in conference play prior to the March 21 match, but only one could remain undefeated moving forward.
The Golden Eagles emerged victorious by a score of 7-2, but the lopsided final score doesn’t tell the full story. Five of the six singles matches were decided by third-set tiebreakers, and two of those tiebreakers ended with one side winning by the two-point minimum.
Surry Central didn’t drop an individual match through its first five team victories of the season. Prior to the match against the Cardinals, the Eagles (6-0, 5-0 FH2A) had only lost a combined one set, 42 singles games and eight doubles games. East Surry alone took four sets, 49 singles games and 11 doubles games on Monday, but even that wasn’t enough to take down Central.
The only two singles matches that didn’t involve a tiebreaker were held on court No. 3 and court No. 5. Surry Central’s Michael Tucker defeated Kade Talton 6-3, 6-3 in No. 3 singles, and the Eagles’ Maddox Martin topped Noah Hopkins 6-3, 6-1 in No. 5 singles.
East Surry (4-2, 4-1 FH2A) won the first set of the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 matches, but lost the first set of No. 2 singles. Coincidentally, Surry Central went on to win the second set and tiebreakers of the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 matches, while East came away the victor in No. 2 singles.
The Cardinals lone singles win was earned by Levi Watson. Central’s Jacob Edmonds took the first set of No. 2 singles 6-2, but Watson won the second set 6-3 and the tiebreaker 10-8.
Court No. 1 featured East Surry’s Cooper Motsinger, the 2021 Northwest 1A Conference Player of the Year, taking on Surry Central’s Josh Pardue, the 2021 Western Piedmont 2A Conference Singles Champion. Both came into Monday’s match undefeated in 2022.
Motsinger took the first set 7-5, but Pardue won the second 6-2. A late surge in the tiebreaker kept Pardue’s undefeated streak alive with a 10-6 win.
Lupe Chavez won the first set of the No. 4 singles match 6-0 against Central’s Tripp McMillen. McMillen stormed back to win the second set 7-5, then put the match away with a 10-8 win in the tiebreaker.
East’s Hayden Douglas won the first set of No. 6 singles 7-5. Central’s Isaac Eller forced a third set tiebreaker in the battle of the freshmen by taking the second set 6-4, then won the match by besting Douglas 10-5 in the tiebreaker.
East Surry’s Motsinger and Nick Lowery became the first duo to defeat Central in doubles by taking down Tucker and McMillen 8-5 on court No. 2. The Eagles won the two remaining doubles matches: Pardue and Edmonds defeated Talton and Chavez 8-2 in No. 1 doubles, and Martin and Eller defeated Watson and Douglas 8-4 in No. 3 doubles.
The rivalry between East and Central will continue for years to come. Of the 13 players to compete in singles and/or doubles, there are: three seniors, two juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com