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Next up: vs. Peru, 5:15 p.m. today
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Carter Merideth Brady Morgan
PERU — One year after injuries cut short their season, Brady Morgan and Carter Merideth helped lead the Rochester boys tennis team to the sectional final.
Morgan teamed with Harrison Dunwoody to win the clinching p[oint at No. 1 doubles, and Merideth teamed with Ashton Musselman to win at No. 2 doubles as the Zebras edged Wabash 3-2 at Thrush Courts Thursday.
The other point came from Tanner Reinartz, who improved to 14-0 on the season after a straight sets win at No. 1 singles.
Wabash winners included Cooper Long at No. 2 singles and Ashton Coffman at No. 3 singles.
Rochester beat Wabash for the second time this season – they also won at Wabash 3-2 on Sept. 11 – and improved to 9-5.
Rochester will play Peru in the sectional final at 5:15 p.m. Friday. Peru knocked off Manchester 5-0 in their semifinal on Wednesday.
Peru will be seeking its seventh consecutive sectional title while Rochester looks for their first sectional title since 1983.
Reinartz cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Eli Mattern.
“Really, everything,” Rochester coach Mason Heyde said when asked what was working for Reinartz. “He went through a stint in the second set where he hit some bad shots, but it was to the point where he knew he was going to win. I don’t know if he was just trying some different shots or something, but overall, he was strong, and he was putting balls where he needed to and ran through the first set pretty easily.”
Morgan teamed with Harrison Dunwoody to put away Dylan Pence and Clayton Shepler 6-2, 7-5 to give the Zebras the clinching point.
Pence and Shepler led 5-4 and was serving for the second set before some nifty volleying at the net from Morgan, who was out with an arm injury last year, led to a service break.
Dunwoody then held serve, and the Zebras broke serve to end the match.
“Same thing they’ve struggled with all year,” Heyde said of Dunwoody and Morgan. “Whether they lose the first set really quickly, they end up winning, or they win the (first) set really quickly, and then it’s like, OK , well, we don’t have to play as hard. And then luckily, they were able to pull it back together before going to that third set.”
Dunwoody committed an error long on their first match point, but Wabash followed with a double fault and a forehand error long from Wabash ended the match.
Merideth and Musselman rolled over Karson McKenzie and T.J. Tracy 6-1, 6-0. Musselman was Rochester’s No. 3 singles player last year, but Heyde moved him to doubles to team up with Merideth this year.
“It feels good to win,” Merideth said. “I was just hoping for them (Dunwoody and Morgan) to win, so we could continue tomorrow.”
Musselman believed the key was “staying consistent.”
“Hitting it down the lines when they weren’t there and finding the open gaps,” Musselman said when asked what the key was. “It feels good, but it’s just that tomorrow is going to be kind of hard.”
Wade Bowers trailed 2-5 in the first set against Long. Then he won two straight games and was serving at deuce at 4-5 when he double-faulted twice in a row to give Long the set. He never won another game.
Still, Heyde praised Bowers for his improvement.
“Wade played really well tonight,” Heyde said. “I really enjoyed watching his progress because he was moving his opponent around. It was good watching him tonight. It was the most progress I’ve seen from him where he was moving his feet, getting to balls. Yeah, he played really well.”
Reffett lost 6-0, 6-1 to Coffman.
“We just need to build up his confidence on his groundstrokes a little more,” Heyde said. “He’s got really good groundstrokes, and he just kind of reverts to safer shots when he’s playing his matches.”
RESULTS: ROCHESTER 3, WABASH 2
Singles
Tanner Reinartz (RHS) def. Eli Mattern (WAB), 6-1, 6-2
Cooper Long (WAB) def. Wade Bowers (RHS), 6-4, 6-0
Ashton Coffman (WAB) def. Jack Reffett (RHS), 6-0, 6-1
Doubles
Harrison Dunwoody-Brady Morgan (RHS) def. Dylan Pence-Clayton Shepler (WAB), 6-2, 7-5
Carter Merideth-Ashton Musselman (RHS) def. Karson McKenzie-T.J. Tracy (WAB), 6-1, 6-0
