Wednesday, May. 11, 2011

Cacha lone Tri-Nine survivor

Six singles players and six doubles pairs from the Tri-Nine Conference competed in last weekend's 4-A individual boys tennis Mideast regional, but only one will be playing in this weekend's state championships.

Athens Drive's Roman Cacha, three-time conference singles champion, finished runner-up in the Mideast singles competition, losing to Peter McDonald of East Chapel Hill 6-2, 7-6 (2).

The top four seeds, or those that win their first two matches in the regional field of 32, advance to the state championships.

Cacha, who is signed to play next year at Army, defeated Robert Jenkins of Northern Durham 6-1, 7-6 (6) in the semifinals.

In his second match of the regional, Cacha defeated the only other Tri-Nine singles player to advance out of the first match - Fuquay-Varina's Bryce Riley - with a comfortable 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Riley defeated Broughton's Staats Battle 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round.

In doubles, Green Hope's Tri-Nine champs were the only ones to advance to the second round of the regional.

Sophomores Matt Hammond and Kyle Burns won 6-1,7-6 (2) in their first match against an Enloe doubles team before losing to eventual regional champion Kasim Alani and Sam Weissler from East Chapel Hill, (6-2, 6-1).

Falling in the first round of regional singles play were Middle Creek teammates A.J. Wypchoski and Matt Stachowiwak, Green Hope's Jack Jin and Athens Drive's Robert Menezes.

In doubles, Middle Creek's Justin Panepinto and Mehtna Tomas, Apex's Gibson Smith and Eric Fletcher, Apex's second doubles team of Curtis Thomas and Shiv Desai as well as Green Hope's Michael Neighbors and Luke Wickelgreen all made first-round exits.

Apex and Green Hope continued their play in the NCHSAA team tennis playoffs Tuesday as Green Hope (16-2) traveled to Broughton while Apex (16-2) hosted New Hanover.