James Wood boys net tennis win over Warren County

By JERRY HOLSWORTH | Special To The Winchester Star

Mar 24, 2018

WINCHESTER — The weather was more reminiscent of skiing season than tennis season, but that didn’t matter to James Wood on Friday.

The Colonels (2-1) conquered the elements and netted a 7-2 win over Warren County, which was playing its first match of the season.

With two courts unusable due to snow, the match also featured gusting winds that challenged the players on both teams. It was experience and consistency that proved to be the difference for the Colonels.

James Wood’s brother tandem of Noah and Jonah Borromeo easily handled the Wildcats’ Aiden deVenoge and Jon Long-Leary in the top two singles matches. Noah Borromeo took the No. 1 match 8-1 against deVenoge by keeping the ball in play despite a strong crosswind.

“Things went pretty good today,” Noah Borromeo said. “My goal was just to be consistent. I was down love-40 in the third game but I was able to come back and win. The key today was not getting the big shots, it was just keeping the ball consistently in play.”

Jonah Borromeo was also on his game, defeating Long-Leary 8-2.

“Jon hit a lot of winners and I thought he was really good,” Jonah Borromeo said. “I thought that I played one of my better matches today, and even though he had me 1-1 at one point, I just took off from there.”

With the wind affecting play all afternoon, consistency was the one thing James Wood coach Bryan Levi stressed to all of his players.

“When you’re playing in a crosswind like we were today it’s tough,” Levi said. “To be successful you have to play consistently and keep the ball in play. I thought our guys did a great job of doing that today.”

The Colonels made it three in a row with Cole Creamer’s 8-1 win over Warren County’s Brodie Cripps in the No. 3 match. No. 4 seed Jake Gregg blanked the Wildcats’ Hunter Pratscher 8-0 and although it was close No. 5 seed Ben Ondeck made it five in a row for Wood when he beat Warren County’s Allah Ibrahim 8-6. That triumph clinched the overall win for the Colonels.

The Wildcats were able to finally get a victory when No. 6 seed Ethan Patterson edged the Colonels’ Jon Ramey 8-6.

“It was a good match and a good win,” Patterson said. “I was hitting the ball towards the back line as much as I could and he had trouble handling that.“

In the doubles competition, James Wood continued to dominate winning two of the three matches.

The Borromeo brothers took the No. 1 match 8-3 over deVenoge and Long-Leary but it was a challenge in the middle of the match as deVenoge and Long-Leary took three straight games after trailing 5-0.

“DeVenoge and Long-Leary hit the ball really well,” Noah Borromeo said. “I missed a couple of volleys that I thought would be easy and got a little mad at myself. Jonah, however, was able to calm me down and we were able to recover and get the win.”

As the temperature dropped rapidly, Warren County’s last two matches of the day were two of their best. Cripps and Pratscher kept it close before falling 8-6 to Creamer and Gregg in the No. 2 doubles match. Ibrahim and Patterson topped Ondeck and Eli Mattingly 8-4 in the No. 3 doubles match.

“We’re a very young team and most of these guys play other sports,” Warren County coach Eric Breit said. “We’ve got football players and basketball players out there and for some it’s their first year playing tennis. To come out here in this weather and take on Wood was a big challenge for us, and I think our guys responded well. We certainly have something to build on now.”

Levi was equally pleased with his team’s performance.

“Considering the fact that we only had one practice this week and just a couple last week I thought our guys did a really good job this afternoon,” Levi said. “We’re breaking in several new guys and going out there in this kind of weather and playing the way they did is very encouraging.”