The Cheney boys tennis team snapped up a 4-3 win against East Valley on Tuesday, April 23, in an epic comeback that head coach Jesse Erickson said he “will always remember.”
Blackhawk player Logan Ray defeated East Valley’s Julien Gunderson 6-1, 6-3 due to what Erickson called “great placement and consistency.” Cheney’s Jared Adams also served up a solid 6-1, 6-1 win against the Knights’ Ethan Graham.
In doubles play, Cheney team Mitchell Johnson and Jameson Powell were defeated in a hard-fought 3-6, 2-6 loss to East Valley’s Ethan Van Cleave and Noah Haight while duo Austin Passey and Sam Laughton lost to East Valley’s Alex Marley and Tate Gregerson 4-6, 2-6.
While the doubles teams may have lost, Erickson said Johnson and Powell “played some of their best tennis,” while Passey and Laughton “played their best match to date.”
The team score of 2-3 meant Cheney had to win the last two matches, and Blackhawks Trevor Stewart and Alex Rose both lost their first sets of singles play.
Stewart made a startling comeback and won his match 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 against the Knights’ Luke Pinyerd. That left the burden of the win on Cheney’s Alex Rose, who lost his first set against East Valley’s R.J. McGee 2-6. But Rose battled back in a fierce three-hour match culminating in a 2-6,7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the mental toughness shown by the team in the comeback,” Erickson said.
The performance couldn’t quite be repeated on Thursday, April 25, against Clarkston, losing 0-7.
The team played again on Friday at the Inland Empire Tournament, in which the boys and girls teams finished 27th out of 53 schools.
“The team picked up great experience and improvement from the tournament and will try to build off of it going into next week’s matches,” Erickson said in an email.
The Blackhawks took on West Valley on Tuesday, April 30th and will face Pullman in an away game May 2.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)