GHS crushes Rox 4-1

Friday, August 27, 2010

GREENCASTLE -- The Greencastle boys' tennis team defeated Rockville 4-1 Wednesday at home.

The Tiger Cubs got wins in all three singles matches and in No. 2 doubles match.

"We're very happy," GHS head coach Bart Spencer said. "We thought we'd made progress over the offseason. In the summer, the guys played a lot of tennis and we just didn't know until tonight what we had actually done. Edgewood is always really good, so we just went down there hoping to put up a good show. But tonight (Wednesday) was like the measure.

"Have we gotten better? I think the answer is obviously yes beating Rockville 4-1. They beat us last year, so we're thrilled. It's a lot of fun," he said.

At No. 1 singles, Kenny Buchanan defeated Garrett Richmond 7-5 and 6-2, while Joey Kass won at No. 3 singles, downing Kurtis Overpeck 6-4 and 6-4.

Buchanan's transformation from a novice player to No. 1 singles has taken a short trek over the past year.

"Kenny, if you had told him even, that 12 months ago when he first started playing tennis that he'd be able to come out here tonight 12 months later and play like that, there's no way anybody would believe that," Spencer said. "He's made so much progress, but he worked real hard last winter. He played a lot of tennis and played a lot of tennis all summer and you can see the result."

After dropping the first set, No. 2 singles player Landon Miller came back to defeat Padric Wright in a super tiebreaker 5-7, 6-4 (10-8). Spencer thought the hillside of purple cheering him on made a difference.

"Landon, I tell you, that was just a huge accomplishment tonight," Spencer said. "He struggles with that getting down on his himself, on his own game. I think the guys cheering for him down there kept him up.

"I think that was great at the end of the game. They were cheering loud for their player and we were cheering loud and that's fun in tennis to have people show up and cheer. That was fantastic. He really gutted that one out," he added.

The No. 2 doubles team of Kaden Faust and Ben Wilson defeated Andrew Weishiet and Logan Powell in straight sets 6-0 and 6-1, with the No. 1 doubles team of Cy Spencer and Lee Hayes falling to Rockville's Lane Mahurin and Matt Wheeler 6-4, 3-6 and 1-6.

Spencer noted that the aspect of the game his team needs to continue working on is the mental edge. He feels his players need to learn to play a balanced game, utilizing their mental toughness to grab that edge.

"We're still working a lot on our emotional game. Keeping our heads level, that's always tough in tennis. Where we're struggling is the guys not realizing that it's an extremely hard game. They just have to realize that -- it's not an easy game. You can't get frustrated when you miss shots," he said.

At Greencastle

Greencastle 4, Rockville 1

Singles

No. 1 Buchanan (GHS) def. Richmond (R) 7-5, 6-2; No. 2 Miller (GHS) def. Wright (R) 5-7, 6-4 (10-8); No. 3 singles Kass (GHS) def. Overpeck (R) 6-4, 6-4

Doubles

No. 1 Mahurin/Wheeler (R) def. Spencer/Hayes (GHS) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; No. 2 Faust/Wilson (GHS) def. Weishiet/Powell (R) 6-0, 6-1