The Warren County High School boys tennis team wasn’t going to waste a second chance to get above .500 this season. The Pioneers improved to 6-5 overall this year by sweeping their District 6-AAA showdown with Stone Memorial Thursday at McMinnville Civic Center.
Warren County won all six singles matches and three doubles pairings to secure its second district sweep this season – the first coming against Cumberland County – and move its district record to 2-2 this season.
Thursday’s match was the team’s second chance in a week to push past .500 for the first time this season after starting with four straight losses. Last week, the Pioneers fell at Webb after four straight wins, but a victory against St. Andrew’s Tuesday evened the team’s record once again. The Pioneers finally got over the hump when senior Clayton Myers had a dominating day to highlight an easy win over the Panthers.
Myers – a first-year tennis player who has signed a golf scholarship with Bryan College – won his singles match 8-0 over Landon Hancock and teamed with Matthew Austin to win the No. 2 doubles match 8-1. Myers showed off a strong serve that kept his opponents off balance and his aggressiveness at the net complimented Austin’s ability to work the back line when the two paired to beat Jake Parsons and Lane Smith. Austin would go on later to win the No. 3 singles match against Steven Tung 8-1.
Winning 8-1 proved to be popular among the Pioneers. Jake Hunt had one of six Pioneer 8-1 victories in No. 1 singles over Jarrett Deason. Daniel Campos and Ben Gawel also accomplished the same feat in their singles sets against Smith and Parsons, respectively. The sixth 8-1 win came in No. 1 doubles when Hunt and Blake Basham downed Deason and Avery Conley.
Other Pioneer victories included Campos and Gawel completing the doubles sweep with an 8-4 victory over Tung and Hancock while Basham won his singles match against Conley 8-2.
The Pioneers will try to keep rolling Monday when the team goes on the road to take on Van Buren County. The match is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.