The Halifax County boys tennis team started its season with an 8-1 loss to powerhouse Jefferson Forest Tuesday evening.
In No. 1 singles action, Jack Riordan knocked off Preston Riddle to 8-0 and JF continued the success in the No. 2 singles spot with Blake Hogan defeating Kennedy Anderson 8-0. The Cavaliers pushed their winning streak to three with Luke Elliott’s 8-1 victory over Andrew Kim in the No. 3 singles action.
Landon Jones picked up the Comets’ first win of the season in the No. 4 spot, defeating Stephen Dibbs 8-3 but JF got back the momentum as Marshall Blankenship handed Ram De Vera an 8-3 loss in No. 5 singles action. Gage Hogan rounded out singles play with an 8-1 win over Josh Slagle in the No. 6 spot.
The Cavaliers started doubles play with a win as Riordan and Hogan defeated Riddle and Kim 8-0 and the success continued in the No. 2 spot with Elliott and Tibbs emerging victorious 8-2 over Anderson and DeVera. JF completed the sweep with Blankenship and Hogan’s win over Jones and Slagle by a score of 8-2.
“Simply put, we got outplayed today,” said coach David Riddle. “We knew JF was going to be tough. They are incredibly strong at the top of the ladder and solid across the board. But overall, we just did not execute well enough to stay in the match.”
However, Riddle did see a bright spot in the play of Jones.
“There were some bright spots,” Riddle said. “[Landon] played really well in his victory at the No. 4 spot in singles. He got to play in a few matches at the end of the ladder last year and used that experience to have a solid day out there. We had quite a few games with other members going to deuce and just ended up on the losing end.” We will use what we learned about ourselves as a team today and move forward in practice Wednesday and get ready for seeing them again on Thursday.”
Davin Wilson is the sports editor for The Gazette-Virginian. Contact him at dwilson@gazettevirginian.com.
