Shorecrest tennis hands Shorewood their first loss of the season

Shorecrest boys varsity tennis team

Shorecrest vs Shorewood Varsity Boys Tennis

WESCO 2A/3A/4A

Date: 9/22/21 Location: Kellogg MS

Score: SC:   4     SW:  3     SC Overall Record: 2-4

By Rob Mann, SC Coach

Shorewood has been dominant all season, going undefeated until today when Shorecrest stepped up and handed the Thunderbirds their first loss of the season. 

It was an impressive victory considering that the Scots were sitting at a record of 1-4 prior to this rival match. Shorewood doubles teams are exceptional this season with their solid net play and excellent tactics. 

The Thunderbird doubles teams are still undefeated after the match today only yielding a total of two games on all three courts. Thus, the Scots needed all four of their singles players to step up their game for this league match and all four of them did.

Zaid Khan (SC) exercised patience by keeping the ball down the middle, then blasted multiple passing shots past JD Drake (SW) when he came to the net to volley. The score was lopsided 6-0, 6-0, but JD played tough and fought hard throughout the match.

Calvin Rice (SC) was able to dictate most of the points by keeping the ball on his forehand side and hitting the ball to the backhand of Murray Falkin (SW). The first set Calvin had an easy time and he thought the second set was going to be easy as well. Murray had other plans and picked up his game in the second set, but it wasn’t quite enough today. Calvin was able to win on court 2 6-2, 6-4.

Owen Pierce SC on the Kellogg Middle School courts
Photo by Rob Mann

On court 3, the two players were relying on their mental fortitude to win the match. David Lin (SW) got the early break in the first set, but Owen Pierce (SC) was able to break back later in the set a couple of times to win the first set. 

Both players were ripping forehands and trying their best to keep the other player deep on the court. Owen minimized his unforced errors this match and looked to get to the net as often as he could to terminate the point. Owen had multiple match points in the second set, but David wasn’t going to go down easily. After multiple match points, Owen finally prevailed 6-4, 6-3.

Matthew Gardiner, Shorecrest, on the Kellogg Middle School courts
Photo by Rob Mann

At this moment the team score is 3-3. Shorecrest has won all the singles and Shorewood has won all the doubles. The deciding match was fourth singles between Matthew Gardiner (SC) and Tate Nelson (SW). 

Matthew had won the first set fairly easily and was up 5-2 in the second set. All eyes from both teams were on this deciding match. Tate went on a four game win streak to bring the score to 5-6 by crushing his first serves and hitting consistent baseline shots. 

Thankfully, Matthew was able to stop the streak by winning the next game to bring the set score to 6-6. The two entered into a tiebreaker where Matthew just played more consistently and was able to win the tiebreaker 7-3 and secure the Shorecrest team victory with a score of 6-3, 7-6(3). 

The overall team score was 4-3 and the Shorecrest record is 2-4.

Box Scores

Singles

1. Zaid Khan (SC) def. JD Drake (SW) 6-0, 6-0
2. Calvin Rice (SC) def. Murray Falkin (SW) 6-2, 6-4
3. Owen Pierce (SC) def. David Lin (SW) 6-4, 6-3
4. Matthew Gardiner (SC) def. Tate Nelson (SW) 6-3, 7-6(3)

Doubles

1. Ethan Farley/Blake Gettman(SW) def. Connor Wakefield/Indigo Vining (SC) 6-2, 6-0
2. Sohum Vohra/Spencer Berr (SW) def. Julian Walston/Ben Borgida (SC) 6-0, 6-0
3. Henry Sheffield/Connor Vana (SW) def. Thomas Linville/Parker Mina (SC) 6-0, 6-0