Knights tennis players go streaking in Wooster

Two streaks continued on the tennis courts at Wooster High School on Thursday, April 7, as West Holmes and Wooster opened Ohio Cardinal Conference play.

First, West Holmes senior Brendan Lynch extended his unbeaten streak at second singles to 18-straight matches, racing out to a 4-0 first-set lead against Sean Hoy Skubik, before finding himself tied at 4 games apiece, ramping up the intensity to take eight of the next 10, and completing the 6-4, 6-2 victory.

Lynch hasn't lost at second-singles since the semifinal round of the 2009 OCC Tournament, but the second streak on the line Thursday is one West Holmes eighth-year head coach Jason Otto was desperately wishing to see broken, as he lamented the night before traveling to Wooster, "The West Holmes boys have never beaten Wooster since I've been here. The girls have beaten them, but the boys are 0-7.

"I really think we have a good shot this year though," he added before watching his second doubles pairing of Evan Aurand and Ricky Guerra pull out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win on their home court, against the number two doubles team from Granville, to help the Knights secure a 3-2 win over the perennially powerful Blue Aces and move to 3-0 on the young season.

After their big win the night before, the freshman, Aurand, and the senior, Guerra, looked overmatched by the Generals number two pairing of Lucas Burris and Colby Jefferies on Thursday evening, dropping the first set 2-6.

But the frosh and senior pairing from West Holmes rallied to win a tie-breaker in the second set – 7-6 (7-2) – and rolled 6-2 in the third set to notch the Knights second victory of the match 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.

Having watched West Holmes sophomore number one singles player Danny Nelson dominate Wooster's first singles player Erik Lindberg a year ago, Otto and company had to feel pretty good about bringing their winless streak to a halt in Wooster in 2011, but Lindberg came out firing to take the opening set 6-2, withstanding Nelson's furious comeback attempt in set number two to force a tie-breaker, during which he took the first two points and rolled to a 7-1 win to wrap up the 6-2 7-6 (7-1) straight-sets victory.

And while Lynch continued to roll at second singles, Storm McBone of Wooster McStormed past Ethan Rawson of West Holmes at number three singles 6-0, 6-1, setting up the pivotal match at first doubles between Sam Meyer and Collin Galbraith of West Holmes and the Generals' pairing of Nick Angert and Corbin Carnahan.

After taking the first set 6-4, Meyer and Galbraith were overwhelmed in the second 6-1 by Angert and Carnahan, but bounced back to take a 5-3 lead in the third and final set, needing just one more win to secure the match and end the West Holmes drought against Wooster.

But that's when the nightmare unfolded for Otto – a former Triway Titan who resides in Wooster and has difficulty speaking nicely about either school – as Angert and Carnahan reeled off four straight wins to drop Meyer and Galbraith 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 and wrap up the 3-2 match victory for the Generals.

And so the beat goes on until at least 2012 for West Holmes and Wooster, but Otto and the Knights can't brood for long as they have to get set to travel to Lexington on Tuesday, April 12 to take on the Minutemen.

And Lexington has a little streak of its own going right now that Otto and company would love to help snap… they've won the OCC title three years in a row and six out of the last seven years.