After failing to notch a victory last season, the Jamestown boys' tennis team has been making some steps in the right direction. And on Saturday, in the Jays' final West Region match of the regular season, they made one giant leap.
Jamestown edged Dickinson 5-4 Saturday in its final home match of the year to get to 3-3 in the Region and secure the fourth seed in Thursday's West Region tournament.
"It's excellent," said JHS coach Pat Mullowney. "These guys responded after a tough match on Thursday and just played really solid tennis as a team today. I couldn't be more proud of these guys for battling today."
The Jays, who haven't gone to state since 2002, will likely be meeting up with Dickinson to open the tournament, so Saturday's preview gave Jamestown a little taste of what to expect.
"It helps a lot (seeing Dickinson) but you can do a lot of different things with lineups," Mullowney said. "How we line up and how they line up is always a challenge, but you try and anticipate what the other team's going to do."
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Danny Fischer went 2-0 on the day for the Jays after winning his singles match over Ian McGovern (6-4, 6-0) and pairing up with Riley Schafer to win in doubles (6-2, 6-2) over McGovern and Bobby Martinson.
Mitch Smyth and Chase Marker also went 2-0 for Jamestown after winning at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively, and teaming up to take down Dickinson's No. 3 doubles 6-1, 6-2.
"Mitch, Chase and Danny all played really solid matches," said Mullowney. "They were in control the whole time."
The Jays took 2-of-3 in doubles after splitting in singles.
Dickinson's Aaron Berg and Dan Anderson were the Blue Jays' only struggles. The team's top two players each won their singles matches against Jamestown's Matt Graves and Ryan Sanders, respectively, and paired up to win No. 1 doubles -- the Midgets' only doubles victory on the day.
"In that No. 1 (singles) match, Matt played a lot of good points but lost a lot of deuce points," said Mullowney. "Ryan at No. 2 again just didn't come up with the points."
Jamestown's match with Valley City today has been cancelled, so the Jays' next competition will be the West Region Tournament on Thursday in Minot.
"We'll regroup at the top," Mullowney said. "We'll get a lineup that will hopefully get it done."
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Jamestown 5, Dickinson 4
Singles
No. 1: Aaron Berg (DHS) def. Matt Graves, 6-1, 6-1
No. 2:?Dan Anderson (DHS) def. Ryan Sanders, 6-3, 6-1
No. 3:?Danny Fischer (JHS) def. Ian McGovern, 6-4, 6-0
No. 4:?Bobby Martinson (DHS) def. Alex Reed, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6)
No. 5:?Mitch Smyth (JHS) def. Jayse Bender, 6-2, 6-3
No. 6:?Chase Marker (JHS) def. Josh Haich, 6-2, 6-3
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Doubles
No. 1:?Berg/Anderson (DHS) def. Graves Reed, 6-0, 6-0
No. 2:?Fischer/Riley Schafer (JHS) def. McGovern/Martinson, 6-2, 6-2
No. 3:?Smyth/Marker (JHS) def. Bender/Hunter Jerome, 6-1, 6-2
Sun sports writer David Griswold can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at dgriswold@jamestownsun.com
