Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Patriots move to state quarterfinals

Sandy Creek’s varsity boys tennis team defeated Statesboro and Bainbridge in the first two rounds of the AAAA state playoffs, setting up a quarterfinal match yesterday against Chapel Hill.

Jimmy Hammond, James Tomlin and Andrew Harkins, the top three singles players for the Patriots, secured the first-round win and a second-round match with Bainbridge.

A win over Chapel Hill would put the Patriots in the semifinals at Stone Mountain against the winner of Riverwood and Marist.

The Starr’s Mill Panthers varsity boys tennis team defeated the Eagle’s Landing Golden Eagles 3-2 at Eagle Landing to advance to the state quarterfinals.

Playing in the number-one singles position, Panther Derrick Davison was victorious in a very tough 6-2, 6-1 match against Darin Pekin. The number-two singles player, Adam Esterline, lost to the Golden Eagles’ Tobias Handschin 2-6, 0-6.

The number-one doubles team of Evan Foster/Keith Kowal lost a well-fought match 5-7, 4-6 to the Golden Eagles’ Seth Bruner/Jeff Singer, while the number-two doubles team of Ben Matlaga/Thomas Davisson defeated Ian Monroe/Theo Stripling 6-4, 7-5.

The meet-winning third point came down to the number-three singles position. Panther Eric Jackson secured that win in a tough and tense two-setter against Brent Jackson, 6-1, 7-5.

Starr’s Mill’s boys traveled to take on Lowndes Tuesday.

McIntosh’s boys and girls tennis teams advanced to the state quarterfinals with wins over Colquitt County and Lowndes respectively. The boys won 5-0 over Colquitt, getting wins from Phil Van Fossan (6-1,3-6,6-2), Stefan James (6-1,6-3) and Osman Farqui (6-4,6-3) in singles and the doubles teams of Francois Pienaar and Joe Styga (6-2,6-1) and Hoot Fisher and Patrick Thomas (6-1,6-2). The girls also won 5-0, with wins from Priscilla Roberts (6-0,6-0), Adriane Hodges (6-2,6-0) and Rebecca Timmis (6-1,6-1) in singles and Shelby Carlson and Lauren Wilde (6-0,6-4) and Stephanie Daughenbaugh and Lyndsi Tuft (6-0,6-1) in doubles.

The Mcintosh boys were scheduled to meet Tift County in the quarterfinals, while the Lady Chiefs will face Glynn Academy and the Starr’s Mill Lady Panthers will meet Colquitt County. With wins by the boys and girls squads from Starr’s Mill and McIntosh, all four will advance to the semifinals Friday at Stone Mountain.