GCHS boys roll in to the postseason
♦ The Warriors entered the tournament as a No. 2 seed
The Gordon Central Boys had never hosted a postseason tennis match prior to Monday’s Class AA State Tournament First Round matchup vs. Booker T. Washington High so they definitely wanted to make the most of the opportunity.
And the Warriors were able to capitalize in a big way as they played strong tennis from start to finish to earn a 5-0 victory and advance to the next round to keep their season alive.
“We had our talk before the match, and I told the boys that we are prepared to play, we’ve trained for this, just be consistent and positive and go out and play the ball, not the opponent,” said Gordon Central head coach Michael Short. “And they did that. The boys played confident and played like they knew they could. I’m proud of them for getting this win and keeping our season going.”
Gordon Central (10-5), who entered the state tournament as the No. 2 seed from Region 7-AA, started Monday’s match already a point ahead as the No. 2 doubles team of Nathan Clance and Landon Lughenbuhl earned a win by forfeit due to Washington, the No. 3 seed from Region 6-AA, not having a team for the line.
The Warriors completed the sweep of the doubles matches with the No. 1 team of Sam Holder and Alejandro Onesto winning their spot 6-0, 6-0. In singles action, Gordon Central continued their dominant form by getting wins from Walker Angland (6-0, 6-0), Seth Hare (6-0, 6-1) and Tyler Bowden (6-0, 6-0) at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.
The win pushes Gordon Central into the second round of the state tournament for the second time in the last three seasons. They will now look to pull the upset in the second round when they travel to LaGrange to take on Callaway, who earned a bye in the first round following their Region 5-AA Championship recently.
Short said his team set clear goals earlier this season and have accomplished them so now the aim is to try to keep this ride going as long as possible.
“It’s really a challenge to our team… the goal was to make it to the state tournament, and we did that,” said Short. “After that, our goal was to win and advance to the second round, and we did that. So they have accomplished the goals they set. Now, we just want to see how far we can go and enjoy getting to play together as a team as long as we can this year.”