In its final home match of the regular season, the Rockbridge County High School boys tennis team earned an 8-1 win over Valley District rival East Rockingham on Wednesday evening at the Lexington Country Club courts.
The Wildcats (10-4 overall, 7-3 district), coming off a 5-4 nondistrict road loss to Staunton (9-4) on Tuesday, swept the doubles matches against ER (4-8, 2-6) and won five of six singles matches.
With the victory, the Wildcats completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Eagles. When the teams met on April 14 in Elkton, RC won 7-2.
In the closest match of the day and the last one to finish, RC freshman Joe Vargas fended off a comeback by ER sophomore Gavin Perrine to earn a 9-8 (8-6 tiebreak) victory.
Other singles winners for the Wildcats were Nic Vargas at No. 1, Nic Faulds at No. 2, Gardner Clement at No. 3 and Jaxon Johnson at No. 5.
Before the match, the Wildcats honored their four seniors: Clement, Faulds, Nic Vargas and Sam Ballstaedt.
The Wildcats will continue district action at Harrisonburg on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
For the full story on this week’s action, with photos from Wednesday’s win and comments from RC head coach Scott Youngdahl, please see our May 14 newspaper.
RC 8, ER 1
SINGLES – Nic Vargas (RC) d. Jackson Secrist (ER) 8-5; Nic Faulds (RC) d. Jesse Life (ER) 8-2; Gardner Clement (RC) d. Will Loomis (ER) 8-2; Joe Vargas (RC) d. Gavin Perrine (ER) 9-8 (8-6 tiebreak); Jaxon Johnson (RC) d. Cole Simpkins (ER) 8-5; Parker Siever (ER) d. Sam Ballstaedt (RC) 8-2.
DOUBLES – N. Vargas and Faulds (RC) d. Secrist and Life (ER) 8-3; Clement and J. Vargas (RC) d. Loomis and Perrine (ER) 8-3; Johnson and Ballstaedt (RC) d. Simpkins and Siever (ER) 8-4.
