By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
A high degree of stress and some misfortune brought out some of the best in Western Alamance’s boys’ tennis team.
The Warriors achieved what they set out to do by completing an undefeated season and winning the Class 5-A dual team state championship.
Close so often in past years, veteran coach Rich Dowler realized the possibilities months ago for this Western team.
“We had one goal and that was to win the title,” he said.
The Warriors defeated Hickory 5-4 in the state final under the Friday afternoon sun at Burlington Tennis Center.
“We knew we could definitely win, but obviously it was really close,” Western junior Adam Boylston said.
Western (21-0) notched its first boys’ tennis state championship since a three-year run from 1998-2000.
Boylston was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship. He joined sophomore Karson Cotton as a singles and doubles winner.
The teams were tied 3-3 through singles and that meant it would come down to doubles.
Luke Durham/Adam Boylston finished their 8-4 doubles victory first, but Hickory won at No. 2 doubles by 8-3 vs. Timothy McDowell/Carter Kaffenberger to even the match score. By then, James Boylston/Cotton were in good shape at No. 3 doubles en route to a clinching 8-3 decision.
Given all the afternoon’s drama, the championship point came awkwardly on a Hickory double fault.
Western held a 3-0 lead halfway through singles, but trouble had been brewing on other courts. Hickory stormed back to win the remaining three singles matches, including Graham Powers topping Durham 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) at No. 1 in a rematch of Durham’s victory six days earlier in the individual state final.
“We knew they were solid 1 through 6,” Durham said. “We knew the bottom of our lineup was pretty tough and they would come through.”
Part of that came from Kaffenberger, the No. 5 singles player who secured Western’s final singles point with no idea the critical nature of the situation. He beat Andrew Hata 2-6, 6-1 (10-7).
“I didn’t know what was at stake for the other players, I just knew what was at stake for me,” Kaffenberger said. “I was kind of nervous going into it. As soon as I lost that first set, I knew I needed to lock in, so that’s what I had to do.”
Yet he went down 0-3 to begin the tiebreaker. Then at 7-7, he kicked it up a notch to post the final three points.
Adam Boylston’s singles match – 6-0, 6-0 vs. Rowan Shiflet – was so swift that he had plenty of time before doubles and wanted to show no signs of panic.
“(Durham) was still playing really good,” Boyleston said. “Once I realized we would have to play doubles, I was trying to keep it together and recognized that it was still tied.”
Durham said there was stress from his showdown with Powers, but he understood he had to refocus quickly.
“I knew I was playing him again in doubles,” Durham said. “I had belief in Adam.”
It was a clutch combination, with Durham putting away a variety of winning shots at the net in sequences that increased the volume from Western supporters.
“We knew we were playing against Graham and he’s a phenomenal player,” Adam Boylston said. “We knew that we kind of had to win because we knew our (No. 2) doubles with Tim getting injured, they probably didn’t have a great chance. We knew we had to win and we were just trying to stick to our game.”
With McDowell, who was part of the doubles state championship with Adam Boylston on May 9, ailing from an injury that resulted in a medical break in singles, Dowler made calculated decisions for the doubles pairings.
“We’ve played that lineup in practice the last couple of weeks,” Dowler said. “We had some flexibility and that was our strategy.”
So failing to secure a point with Durham at No. 1 singles wasn’t devastating.
“We had a good team behind him,” Dowler said.
Kaffenberger was a member of Western’s past two state championship teams in boys’ soccer. The tennis endeavor fit in well.
“The reason I joined tennis is because of how they played and it’s a group of friends trying to (do big things),” he said.
Cotton’s singles victory came by 6-2, 6-3 against Sam Green.
Western defeated visiting Pikeville Aycock 5-1 in the East Region final May 13 to secure a place in the state title match.
Other dual team champions in state finals contested Friday and Saturday in Burlington were Durham Jordan (Class 8-A), Greensboro Grimsley (Class 7-A), Asheville Roberson (Class 6-A), Carrboro (Class 4-A), Pine Lake Prep (Class 3-A) and Elkin (Class 2-A/1-A).
