Published: October 10, 2008 12:04 am            

TENNIS: No. 1 doubles comeback lifts Floyd past Jeff in regional final

SELLERSBURG — Floyd Central boys’ tennis coach Rick Miller likes that his team plays a tough regular-season schedule because it teaches his players several lessons.

One of those lessons is how to deal with adversity, especially when you are in a dogfight of a match.

On Thursday in the Silver Creek Regional final, the Highlanders’ No. 1 doubles team of Evan Winders and Brad Emerson showed they have learned that lesson extremely well.

With Floyd up 2-1, Winders and Emerson rallied from a one-set deficit to defeat Jeffersonville’s Jeremy Chesher and Sam Burke 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(7-4) and clinch the Highlanders’ sixth straight regional championship.

No. 16 Floyd (12-9) ended up winning 4-1, taking the season series with the No. 18 Red Devils (17-4) two matches to one. The Highlanders will play in the Jasper Semistate semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday with the final starting at 2 p.m.

“I told the guys after the match that we’ve shed a lot of blood this year, and a lot of it has been ours because we’ve got nine losses,” Miller said. “People say, ‘How could you have nine losses and you’re going to the semistate and you’re ranked 16th in the state?’ Our schedule is so enormously tough. That’s why we come out on top a lot of times because we know how to cope with adversity.”

It looked like Chesher and Burke had the match won late in the third set. Leading 5-4, the Jeff senior duo took a 30-love lead in the 10th game. But Winders and Emerson rallied to win the game and deadlock the set at five.

That propelled them to take the next contest and go up 6-5. But Chesher and Burke broke the Floyd tandem’s serve to tie the set at six, forcing a tiebreaker.

After that, it was all Winders and Emerson as they won the tiebreak by three points. The Highlander duo defeated Chesher and Burke for the first time this year after falling to them in both regular-season matches.

“I can’t tell you how many times they’ve been down and came back,” Miller said about Winders and Emerson. “They’ve been down and came back and lost. They’ve been down and came back and won. Today was their time to come back from being down.

“I tell our kids that there is no clock out here in tennis. It’s not over until the last point is played.”

Jeff head coach Mark Reilly said Emerson’s play down the stretch was the difference.

“Emerson hit a couple of really good shots in the tiebreaker. Like one time, he hit a winner and he was falling down and almost landed on his bottom. He hit the shot back, plus it was a good shot,” Reilly said. “I think it kind of knocks the air out of you whenever you hit a shot like that.”

Three matches finished before the No. 1 doubles thriller. At No. 2 singles, Floyd senior Adam Struble swept Jeff’s Shane Burke, 6-0, 6-0. Floyd’s No. 2 doubles team of Ryan Smith and Luke Schreiber followed Struble’s victory with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Ryan Lewis and Joseph Nikitas.

Jeff’s lone point came at No. 3 singles, as senior Nathan Cross downed Highlander senior Geordie Crone, 6-2, 6-1.

The match everybody thought would decide the regional championship was at No. 1 singles between two of Southern Indiana’s best — Floyd senior Ben Boesing and Jeff sophomore Patrick Elliott.

The match ended after Floyd clinched the title, with Boesing coming out on top 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. Elliott defeated Boesing in the first Jeff-Floyd match this season, 7-6(7-3), 6-3. In the Hoosier Hills Conference tournament semis, Boesing returned the favor with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win.

“The fact that we had the match won before Ben won was amazing,” Miller said.

The Highlanders will play 10th-ranked Terre Haute North in their semistate semifinal. Three other ranked teams could also be playing in the regional in No. 12 Columbus North, No. 13 Bloomington North and Castle, which shared the No. 18 ranking with Jeff in the final coaches poll.

Reilly loses three seniors from his starting lineup in Cross, Chesher and Sam Burke. The veteran coach said this was the best team he has coached in his 22 years at the Jeff helm.

“Patrick is the best No. 1 I’ve had, and our one doubles team is one of the better ones. Nathan’s done excellent at the No. 3 spot,” Reilly said. “We’re going to have a good nucleus to build around (next year). We’re going to have to try to get some leadership.”



SILVER CREEK REGIONAL

CHAMPIONSHIP

Floyd Central 4, Jeffersonville 1

Singles — Boesing (F) d. Elliott 6-2, 4-6, 7-5; Struble (F) d. Sh. Burke 6-0, 6-0; Cross (J) d. Crone 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles — Winders-Emerson (F) d. Chesher-Sa. Burke 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(7-4); Smith-Schreiber (F) d. Nikitas-Lewis 6-1, 6-4.

        

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