Aycock netters roll over winless Hawks

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 15, 2007 2:32 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Saddle up and ride again.

After dropping three singles matches in tiebreaking fashion Tuesday afternoon, the Charles B. Aycock men's tennis team rebounded in dominating fashion Wednesday afternoon. The Golden Falcons posted five straight-set decisions in singles play and cruised past winless North Lenoir 8-1.

C.B. Aycock (4-3 overall) seized its fourth consecutive victory heading into today's non-conference tilt at perennial Class 2-A power Greene Central. The Hawks fell to 0-4 overall, with all four losses coming against 3-A programs.

"I think we came out today with a lot of intensity, especially since we had a tough match yesterday," said first-year Aycock head coach Kevin Coghill. "We had some tough (individual) matches lost and I'm really proud of those guys coming back, getting back on that horse again and pulling out some good wins in singles today."

Third-seeded Ben Evans, fifth-seeded Ben Nichols and sixth-seeded Dylan Quinn each endured a tiebreaking loss against Wilson Fike. Evans let a first-set lead slip away in a straight-set defeat against the Hawks' Ryan Kramer. Nichols outlasted Trey Gray 6-4, 6-2.

Quinn, a freshman, grinded out a come-from-behind 6-2, 7-5 decision over Ethan Dail.

"His opponent was moving Dylan around, up and back and side to side which forced him to play defensively," said Coghill. "He would hit the ball the back to the middle of the court and to the guy's strength, which was his forehand side."

Coghill encouraged Quinn to take early control of the point and force the bigger and slower Dail to move around the court. Quinn exploited Dail's weakness, his one-handed backhand, which helped open the court and created more consistent attacks.

Quinn, who trailed 5-2 at one point, pulled within 5-4 on serve. Dail quickly fell behind 0-40 on his serve with three straight unforced errors. Quinn couldn't take advantage of the mistakes and the two battled through five agonizing deuce points before Dail committed back-to-back hitting errors to end the game.

Quinn held serve at 6-5 and broke Dail's serve to close out the straight-set win.

"Dylan is a very good competitor, very athletic," said Coghill. "He's a basketball player, so what he does is go out there and do the one thing he knows which is compete.

"He uses his mental game to beat people."

Freshmen Blake Vail and Addison Westbrook, who play at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, each picked up a straight-set win. Vail remained unbeaten in seven outings, while Westbrook improved to 4-2.

Fourth-seeded Blake Cooper extended his winning streak to five in singles and doubles play. Cooper turned back Taylor Holmes 6-4, 6-3 and teamed with Nichols for an 8-3 triumph over Ryan Kramer-Zeth Lee in doubles.

Cooper played No. 1 for Aycock last season.

"I think the key is he had a really big win about five matches ago where he won 10-8 in a tiebreaker," said Coghill. "That gave him so much confidence and the last four matches, he's been playing with that confidence ... and a little bit of a swagger, too.

"He's just really calm and getting it done."

The Golden Falcons won all three doubles points and completed their regular-season sweep of the Hawks. Kramer earned North Lenoir's lone singles point.

Coghill is looking forward to today's match at Greene Central.

"That's going to be really tough," he said. "I think with our number two seed playing strong, I think we have a really good opportunity to win that match."

Wednesday's match

C.B. Aycock 8

North Lenoir 1

Singles -- No. 1 Blake Vail (CBA) d. Clinton O'dell 6-0, 6-0; No. 2 Addison Westbrook (CBA) d. Jacob Maready 6-0, 6-1; No. 3 Ryan Kramer (NL) d. Ben Evans 6-4, 6-1; No. 4 Blake Cooper (CBA) d. Taylor Holmes 6-4, 6-3; No. 5 Ben Nichols (CBA) d. Trey Gray 6-4, 6-2; No. 6 Dylan Quinn (CBA) d. Ethan Dail 6-2, 7-5.

Doubles -- No. 1 Vail-Westbrook (CBA) d. O'dell-Chandler Phillips 8-1; No. 2 Evans-Quinn (CBA) d. Dail-Garrett Phillips 8-2; No. 3 Cooper-Nichols (CBA) d. Kramer-Zeth Lee 8-3.

Records: C.B. Aycock 4-3, North Lenoir 0-4.

Tuesday's match

C.B. Aycock 6

Wilson Fike 3

Singles -- No. 1 Blake Vail (CBA) d. Griffin Benton 6-1, 7-5; No. 2 Addison Westbrook (CBA) d. Matthew Fleck 3-6, 6-3, 10-8; No. 3 Griffin Williford (F) d. Ben Evans 1-6, 6-4, 10-8; No. 4 Blake Cooper (CBA) d. Chris Green 6-0, 6-4; No. 5 Nico Cedeno (F) d. Ben Nichols 3-6, 6-4, 17-15; No. 6 Carey Banks (F) d. Dylan Quinn 7-6, 4-6, 10-7.

Doubles -- No. 1 Vail-Westbrook (CBA) d. Benton-Fleck 8-3; No. 2 Evans-Quinn (CBA) d. Williford-Grant 8-3; No. 3 Cooper-Nichols (CBA) d. Autry-Atkinson 8-6.

Records: C.B. Aycock 3-3.