Published Wednesday, May 07, 2008 10:40 AM
Updated Wednesday, May 07, 2008 10:41 AM
Justin Cook returns a serve for the Knights last week.
Knights’ tennis team eliminated by Wave
This wasn’t the year for the Stratford’s boys’ tennis team, but coach Sam Ross believes next year could be.
The Knights went 8-5 in the regular season to secure the No. 3 playoff seeding for their region. Stratford blew by Sumter 5-1 in the opening round April 29, but then fell 6-0 to Summerville, a No. 1 seed, Thursday.
“I thought we would play them a little closer than we did,” Ross said of the Summerville match. “We haven’t been able to jump that barrier and make it to the third round and that was our goal this year.”
Senior Nakul Thakore came closest to earning a win for Stratford Thursday. His No. 3 singles match with Joel Roberts was decided in a tiebreaker, 7-5, 7-6, 7-3.
“He played a real good match today and that is the kind of match he has been winning this year,” Ross said. “He has been great this season and really stepped up.”
Karan Patel nearly bounced back from a 6-2 loss in the first set of his No. 4 singles match, but fell to Summerville’s Luke Westbury. Patel had quite a rally going in the second set before Westbury finished strong to pull out a 7-5 win. In No. 1 singles, Jeremy Sullivan had a good first set, but then lost momentum.
While the Knights didn’t reach their goal, Ross is optimistic about next season.
“I think we could have played a lot of the teams we lost to this year closer, but the good news is I’m only losing one senior. This group of players has a lot of ability. The challenge next year will be to get them to play at the level I know they can. We only hit that point once or twice this season. This group of young men has a lot of character, we just aren’t consistent yet.”
Stratford v. Summerville results
Singles: Joey Holoubek d. Jeremy Sullivan 7-5, 6-2; Brian Mayeax d. Justin Cook 6-4, 6-1; Joel Roberts d. Nakul Thakore 7-5, 7-6, 7-3; Luke Westbury d. Karan Patel 6-2, 7-5; Mason Taylor d. Steven Rays 6-3, 6-3. Doubles: Holoubek/Gabe Meckley d. Brandon Knudson/Jeremy Sullivan.