After Western Albemarle coach Charles Ix took the shortest restroom break in American tennis history, one of his former players who was watching the match play out let Ix know that he’d potentially missed the point of the match.
Ix’s only response?
“Did we win it?”
That’s what Saturday’s Group AA final was all about — not well-placed backhands or exciting rallies, though there were plenty of those. It was about surviving.
At the end, Jamestown High was able to do just that, outlasting Western in a match that came down to the third set of the third doubles match as the Eagles scratched together a 5-4 victory at Virginia Tech. The win ended Western’s three-year run as the Group AA champion.
After a singles period that left the team match score tied at 3-3, Jamestown and Western locked up in doubles, with the matches quickly moved inside to Tech’s indoor tennis center when rain started pouring in Blacksburg. In a rematch of Friday’s individual doubles semifinals at No. 1, Western’s Alex Preve and Teddy Nelson took on Elliott Mee and Miles Neilson. Mee and Neilson got on a roll early and picked up a 6-4, 6-2 win to give the Eagles a 4-3 advantage. That placed Western’s fate squarely in the hands of their talented quartet of sophomore starters, a group that was incredibly reliable in the postseason, overcoming any concerns about their inexperience.
“They played well,” Ix said. “Cam (Scot) had a great day, Will (Diamond) played great in singles.”
On court No. 2, Scot and Andrew Loving provided a preview of the drama to come in No. 3 doubles with a tiebreaker win in the first set that gave Western a little desperately needed momentum. The tandem had to rally from being down 5-2 early in that opening set, winning four games in a row to take a 6-5 lead before entering the tiebreaker. That run continued into the second set, where Loving and Scot jumped out to a 4-0 lead before eventually closing out the team point with a 6-2 set win.
From there, spectators, coaches and players turned to the No. 3 court where Western’s Will Diamond and Tom Lewis won the first set 7-5 before dropping the second set by the same score. That set up the decisive third set, where Western’s team took a 2-1 lead, but things swung quickly as J.J. Wilroy and Michael Reso broke back for a 3-2 advantage. Western managed to hold serve in the next, but Jamestown surged once again to take a 6-3 victory, igniting a massive celebration where Mee and Neilson sprinted through a hallway from their individual doubles match that had already started to join their teammates.
Reso’s gritty performance was particularly impressive considering the junior has had to wait more than three years to get a chance to contribute for the Eagles, finally finding a spot in the ladder midway through this season.
“He has sat on the bench for three years and had to watch and finally gets his shot to play,” said Jamestown coach Bob Artis. “And comes through for a state championship — it’s overwhelming.”
The match was a mirror image of the 2007 Group AA final, where Jamestown fell 5-4 in another narrow match that came down to the final doubles tilt.
Of course, the future is bright for Western’s sophomore-laden squad though they will lose a big-time leader in Preve, a senior who’s two wins in singles gave Western a huge boost in the semifinals and finals.
“It’s tough (to finish with a loss) but you’ve got to look back and say he’s got three state championships,” Ix said. “When you look back on that career, (it’s pretty amazing).”
Scot, Loving, Diamond and Lewis as well as Nelson, a junior, all should come back next year. Diamond emerged as a pivotal figure for Western at the No. 5 spot as he was the lone sophomore that won both his singles matchups, gutting through a three-set battle against Jamestown’s Max Dombeck. The group of young players all played brilliantly throughout the postseason.
“They’ll be back,” Ix said. “I can almost guarantee it.”
