South County dominated West Potomac Friday, winning seven of the nine matches played in Alexandria.
Although it was the beginning of the season and most players were still working out their kinks, the individual contest between South County's Spenser Bullock and Alexander Cheng of West Potomac turned out to have the excitement of a late-season contest.
"[In high school tennis] you don't get to see many tie-breakers," said West Potomac coach Peter Ranney.
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Cheng, normally a strong defensive player, had trouble with the aggressiveness of his opponent early as Bullock took advantage of Cheng's weak forehand. Cheng also had trouble landing first serves which gave Bullock multiple chances to return with power. Cheng looked somewhat intimidated when Bullock charged the net, and Cheng quickly found himself down 3-0 to start the match.
In between points, Bullock worked on loosening his strained shoulder. Cheng took notice of this and began trying to force errors by hitting the ball right at him and taking advantage of Bullock's aggressiveness. With Cheng serving and the advantage, Cheng sent a hot shot directly at Bullock. Bullock charged the net, turned his torso nearly completely around, and tried to smash the ball. He swung right through, giving Cheng his first game.
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"That caused a lot of pain," said Bullock. "Then I started missing a lot of his shots."
Cheng broke serve on the next game, which was just the confidence boost that he needed.
Bullock continued with his game plan of aggressiveness, but he was clearly frustrated with the comeback that Cheng had put together. Bullock's serve started to slip away from him and he committed numerous double faults. Cheng also started to play the net better and was able to keep Bullock on the baseline. With the match tied at six, Bullock switched to a racquet with tighter strings.
The teams noticed that Cheng and Bullock were truly engaged in a battle and with all of the other individual contests completed, the two soon had a large audience cheering them on. After 20 games the match remained even which sent them into a tie-breaker.
Tied at five points each, Cheng looked a bit fatigued, and the last two points lacked the adrenalin of the first 20 games, as Bullock finally took the match.
"I thought I played it pretty well," said Cheng. "He just wound up getting the last two points."
RESULTS
Individuals
Spenser Bullock (SC) defeated Alexander Cheng (WP)11-10 (7-5)
Daniel Shlossman (SC) defeated Drew Sanders (WP) 10-8
Davis Gaddy (WP) defeated Tyler Lam (SC) 10-6
Matt Masakayan (SC) defeated Carlo Zuffi (WP) 10-8
Jack Proctor (SC) defeated Alex Browning (WP) 10-2
Adam Epstein (SC) defeated Miles Gheesling (WP) 10-2
Doubles
Cheng & Sanders defeated Bullock & Masakayan 9-8 (7-0)
Shlossman & Lam defeated Gaddy & Browning 8-3
Proctor & Matt Gates defeated Zuffi & Gheesling 8-3
