Rosewood, Princeton individuals qualify for east 1A tennis regionals

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 27, 2016 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Good-luck charms come in all shapes and sizes.

People turn horseshoes upside down so their fortune never runs out.

Others rely on the age-old rabbit's foot.

Rosewood ... well ... let's just say a washing machine is definitely necessary to keep the players' talisman -- multi-colored socks -- in clean condition.

Wearing the gear and undoubtedly on a mission, the Eagles took home the doubles championship crown and finished as the singles runner-up during the season-ending Carolina 1-A Conference boys' tennis tournament contested at Herman Park on Tuesday.

RHS qualified its two doubles teams -- top-seeded Lucas Parrish-Jordan Price, which upended teammates Chase Bartlett-Collin Pendegraph 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 in the finals.

Princeton sophomore Jake Williams defeated the Eagles' Marc Lewis 6-1, 6-1 in the singles championship. Each player advances to the regionals along with third-place finisher Jeremy Lintner of Rosewood.

"We had a wonderful day," Eagles head coach Daniel Baynes said. "I'm really proud of Marc and Jeremy for making it to the regionals. They both competed very hard and showed a lot of grit in their quest to represent us at the regionals."

Willams, a transfer from perennial powerhouse Fayetteville Terry Sanford, opened his regional-title run with a 6-1, 6-2 decision over Spring Creek's Lowell Smothers. He earned a 7-5, 6-1 victory against Lintner, the No. 1 seed, in semifinal-round play.

"I had never played him before (this season)," Williams said. "The first set, I didn't know how he played. I went into it and just played my game (in the first set). I started playing more aggressive off the serve (in the second set) and that helped me win."

Lintner said his second served proved his downfall.

"It was too soft," he told Baynes.

Spring Creek's Nick Strickland squeezed out a 6-4, 7-6 (1) decision over Princeton's Kyle Balageo in their first-round singles match. He fell to Lewis and then lost to Lintner with the final regional berth on the line.

The Gators' duo of Milton Bautista-Elias Soto prevailed in opening-round play, dropped a semifinal match to Parrish-Price and then fell to Princeton's Alan Farrior-Garrett Klein in the third-place match.

SC's tandem of Matt Morton-Aubrey Pollock lost in the first round.

"Our guys competed and played their best from the beginning of the tournament to the very end," SC head coach Jason Buchtmann said. "I'm proud of their efforts and hard work this season."

Princeton, a second-year program, showed tremendous progress compared to dual-team and tournament play from a year ago. The top six singles players are two sophomores and four freshmen.

Only Williams had any playing experience as the No. 11 seed on Terry Sanford's team last spring.

"Our goal this year was to improve one game at a time, to learn the game of tennis and begin seeding the court," second-year PHS head coach Christy Klein said. "Our young men demonstrated their exceptional growth and accomplisment of this goal today during the conference tournament with Jake winning the singles ... Garrett (and) Alan qualifying for regionals."

Rosewood, the regular-season champion, drew an opening-round bye in the N.C. High School Athletic Association dual-team playoffs. The Eagles (11-1 overall) face the North Central Athletic-Central Tar Heel winner in second-round play on May 10.