SOUTHERN PINES — The Scotland boys tennis team traveled to Southern Pines Monday to take on Pinecrest in the regular-season finale, and the Patriots completed the season sweep of the visiting Scots.
Pinecrest captured an 8-1 victory to drop Scotland for the second time this season — the Patriots, who finished a perfect 10-0 in Southeastern Conference play, won on all of the singles courts and two of the three doubles contests.
In No. 1 singles, Aidan Temple took down Shane Dubbs 6-0, 6-1, and on No. 2 Rook Meacham dispatched Thomas Hopkins 6-0, 6-0. On No. 3, John Zhang nearly knocked off Caleb Eason but Eason eked out a 6-1, 4-6, 11-9 victory. Will Bahner swept Nyjel Collins-Jackson on court No. 4, winning 6-0, 6-1, and on No. 5, Jake Nixon cruised past Sam Poage 6-1, 6-1. Daniel Johnson was the other Scot to come close to scoring a win, but Jake Stokes survived to take the match 6-2, 6-6 (7-5).
In double, the combination of Nixon and Meacham defeated Dubbs and Zhang 8-0, and Sebastian Ix and Pierce Strayer downed Dawson Chavis and Drew Monroe 8-4. Scotland’s pair of Collins-Jackson and Poage improved to 9-1 this season when they led the Scots’ to their lone point of the day, defeating Hanson Lucas and Ike Crickmore 8-6.
Pinecrest (13-5) and Scotland (3-10) will join the rest of the SEC in Raeford today for the start of the two-day conference tournament.
Scots head coach Atondra Ellis said she plans to bring Collins-Jackson and Poage to compete in the doubles tourney, and mentioned Chavis and Monroe will likely be the other pairing. In singles, Scotland will send out Dubbs and Zhang to battle for a spot in the North Carolina High School 4A East Regionals set to take place next month.
Logan Martinez can be reached at 910-506-3170. Follow him on Twitter @L_Martinez13.