JCCC men’s tennis fifth at nationals
Johnson County Community College |
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Individually the highlight of tournament was the play of sophomore Zach Alholm and freshman Pierre LeGrange at No. 3 doubles, and freshman Taj Harrison, and sophomores Dylan Gatton and Adam Rens at No.1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles respectively.
Alholm and LeGrange reached the semifinal round of their No. 3 doubles bracket. The pair opened the tournament with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Blake Cutright and Mike Scholtman of Lake Land. JCCC advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-4 victory over Region VI rival Petr Grigorev and Roman Mendoza of Barton County. Alholm and LeGrange followed that with a hard-fought three-set win over Matthew Holland and Evandro Rosindo of AABC, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. The duo missed its bid to compete for a national title, falling in the semifinals 0-6, 2-6 to Andrew Carter and Aaron Goode of Seminole State.
In singles play, Harrison, Gatton and Rens all reached the quarterfinals in their respective brackets. Harrison, the team’s No. 1 player, defeated Connor Rives of Faulkner State, 6-7, 6-4, 10-7 to advance to the quarters. In that round, Harrison was defeated by Seminole State Andres Nunez, 2-6, 1-6.
Gatton opened the No. 2 bracket with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Michel Abundis of Temple College, then downed Edward Baldwin of Central Alabama, 6-1, 6-2. In the quarterfinal round, Gatton lost to Diego Motivar of Cowley College, 1-6, 0-6.
Rens, the team’ MVP this year, opened with a three-set 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win over T.J. Holmes of Arkansas-Fort Smith, and followed with a 7-5 7-6 win over Raphael Namias of Barton County. Rens lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual national champion David Jackson of Vincennes, 0-6, 2-6.
Harrison and Gatton also made some noise in the No. 1 doubles competition. The pair opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Nick Caldwell and Ian Esquer of Pima, and advanced to the quarterfinal round with an 8-2 win over Carlos Bataller and Scott Bradley of Collin County. The pair failed to advance to the semifinals, falling to Dominic McLuskey and Roman Petrunin of Tyler Junior College. They would go on to finish runner-up in the championship.
