PITTSBORO — The Northwood boys tennis team captured an exciting 5-4 victory over Cedar Ridge on Wednesday afternoon in Pittsboro in a key 3A Big Eight Conference match.
Northwood (3-4, (5-5) opened the match hot with Sam Earnshaw cruising in top-seeded singles 6-1, 6-0 and Scott Gilliam posting a 7-6, 6-0 triumph at No. 2 to send the Chargers up 2-0.
Cedar Ridge (0-6, 0-7) countered with three consecutive wins, 6-2, 6-3 over Oliver Poteete at No. 3, 3-6, 6-3 (10-6) over Garrett Gordon at No. 4, and 6-1, 0-6 (10-8) over Ryan Christensen at No. 5, to go up 3-2 in the match.
The bout of the day then took place at No. 6 where Northwood’s Drew Sipe faced pretty much a must win situation. The Charger sophomore came through with a tightly contested 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), (10-6) triumph to send the match into doubles knotted at 3-all.
Earnshaw and Poteete teamed up to capture an 8-5 win at No. 1 to send the Chargers back in front 4-3.
Gordon and Sipe then posted a hard fought 8-6 decision at No. 2 to clinch the match victory for Northwood.
At No. 3, Christensen and Noah Clark fell in a tight one 8-5 to make the final 5-4 in favor of the Chargers.