LAURINBURG — The Fighting Scots were in good position to pick up a monumental Southeastern conference win over Pinecrest on Tuesday in Southern Pines, but weren’t quite able to seal the deal.
The Scots fell to the Patriots in a make-up match, 5-4, which according to Scots head coach Atrondra Ellis is the biggest run her team has given Pinecrest in several seasons.
“We were so close, we almost had them,” said Ellis. “The match was closer in competition than we’ve been in a while with Pinecrest. Our big contributors for this match were Nyjel Collins-Jackson and Shane Dubbs with both of them winning their singles and doubles matches to give us a fighting chance. We’ll get them next time.”
Ellis opted to switch things up against the Patriots moving senior Shane Dubbs from first singles to second and bumping junior Ryan Phillips up to first singles. Both Phillips and Dubbs lost their singles matches — a rare thing for Dubbs.
Phillips fell in two sets to Pinecrest’s Aidan Temple, 6-0, 6-1 and Dubbs dropped his match to Pinecrest’s Will Bode, 6-1, 6-0. The Scots found themselves in tough straights as junior Sam Poage lost his third singles match in two sets as well. Poage dropped the match to Pinecrest’s Cody Stokes, 6-3, 6-0.
Scots junior Nyjel Collins-Jackson came up big for his team as he battled against Pinecrest’s Jessie Meacham. The two went into extra points in the first set as Collins-Jackson pulled off the 7-5 win before finding his groove to trounce Meacham in their second set, 6-0.
Sophomore Nate Dubbs then stepped up on the No. 5 singles court to overcome Pinecrest’s Ben Montalbo in two sets. Dubbs and Montalbo went shot for shot in the first set before Dubbs closed the door to win 6-4 before cruising past the freshman 6-1.
The Scots Jason Kang rounded out the singles matches with a two-set loss to Pinecrest’s Kyle Osterman, 6-0, 6-0.
Phillips and Dubbs didn’t fare much better in their doubles match against Temple and Stokes falling 8-1. The Scots second and third doubles teams came in clutch with back-to-back wins.
Poage and Collins-Jackson buckled down and earned a hard-fought victory over Pincrest’s Bode and Meacham, 8-4. N. Dubbs and sophomore Drew Monroe had an even closer third doubles match against Pinecrest’s Kyle Osterman and Yogi Patel. N. Dubbs and Monroe gutted it out to get the Scots final win of the match, 8-5.
The Scots move to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in SEC play while Pinecrest moves to 6-2 and 5-0 in SEC play.
The Scots are back in action tonight as they travel to Pembroke to take on Purnell for the second time this week. Matches are set to begin at 4 p.m.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.