The Jones County High boys’ tennis team has completed a key portion of its schedule without a loss and is just two matches shy of finishing the regular season with an undefeated record. With a 3-2 victory over Stockbridge March 22, the Greyhounds improved their sub-region 4B-AAAA record to 6-0 and locked up the number-one seed for the region tournament, which begins April 16 in Stockbridge.
“It means a lot to be undefeated in the sub-region,” coach Lance Pittman said. “Coming in, I thought we’d be strong, but I didn’t know how we’d match up with the Atlanta area schools in our region.”
“Now, I feel like our sub-region is the strongest and we’ve got a real good chance to win the region.”
In that final sub-region contest against Stockbridge, Pittman watched a gutsy performance by his team, as singles’ players Kyle Perry and Brandon Spivey fell in the Greyhounds’ first two matches.
That left singles’ player Milt Harrington and doubles’ teams of Cory McDuffie and Max Donnan, as well as Drew McElveen and Matthew Vongsavanh needing to win each of their matches for the ’Hounds to maintain their spotless record.
“That kind of situation is nothing terribly new for us,” Pittman said. “It had happened to us a couple of times already this season.”
“I can pretty much count on my doubles’ teams no matter who we’re playing, so it just comes down to my number-three singles’ player.”
For the region tournament, Pittman is planning on strategically moving Perry to the number-three spot due to his performance in a lot of pressure situations thus far this season.
The coach also plans to move Harrington to the number-two spot.
“I’ve been putting Milt up against the ‘cream of the crop’ this year,” Pittman said. “I think by moving him to number-two, his experience at number-one will help him in the region tournament.”
Pittman also praised a couple of his senior doubles’ players, McDuffie and Vongsavanh, for their work thus far this season.
“Cory is one of the kids I look to as a leader,” the coach said. “No matter who I put on that number-one doubles’ team with him, they always seem to excel because of his leadership and communication.”
“Matthew started the season as a singles’ player and I moved him to doubles, and he has adapted and excelled in that role,” Pittman said. “I’m proud of him for accepting and embracing that role. Since he’s gone to doubles, his team hasn’t lost a match.”
With the region tournament still a little less than two weeks away, the team has regular-season, non-region contests left against Dutchtown and GMC next week to maintain its overall undefeated record.
“I think it’s a big deal,” Pittman said.
“I hate to lose, and even though they’re non-region, these matches could still do a lot for the confidence of the guys.”
The two matches were late additions to the schedule by Pittman in an effort to give his team a couple of tuneup opportunities after a week-long hiatus for spring break.
The ’Hounds have previously beaten both Dutchtown and GMC this season.
“We had a long layoff and we don’t play this week, so I’m going to try to get them back in shape and work on fundamentals again,” Pittman said.
