WESTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur tennis Bucs rebounded from their single loss of the year with a pair of victories to cap off a busy week last week.
The Bucs, who dropped their first outing of the year to Bridgeport last Wednesday, quickly returned to the win column on the road Thursday defeating the Lewis County Minutemen by a 5-2 score.
They followed that up with a long road trip to Moundsville on Saturday and easily defeated John Marshall by a 6-1 count.
Against Lewis County, Aden Pitts and Caden Andrick at No. 1 and Mauricio Menendez and Hank Phillips at No. 2 gave B-U two wins in doubles action.
Andrick at No. 2, Menendez at No. 3 and Phillips at No. 4 gave the Bucs the team win as all three picked up singles wins.
Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Jason Rock said about the win, “Aden struggled to find his shots early at No. 1 in his singles match and by the time he figured it out, it was a little too late. Our No. 3 doubles team of Bailey Cleavenger and Donovan Cutlip played a great match that went to a tiebreaker. The whole match was back and forth and that’s one you hate to see a team lose because both teams played a great match.”
Against John Marshall, Pitts and Andrick and Menendez and Phillips staked the Bucs to an early lead getting doubles wins and Pitts, Andrick, Menendez and Phillips swept singles action for the 6-1 win.
“It was a long trip and we had a two-hour rain delay before we finally got on the court to start playing,” noted Rock. “Overall, our matches went quickly and it was a decent afternoon though. I’m proud of how Mauricio and Hank played in doubles. They were down early but won five straight games and really outplayed their opponents in the second half of the match. At the beginning of the season they would have struggled to pull that one out but I think they are becoming a better and better team each match.”
The two wins lifted the Bucs to 12-1 on the season.
They were slated to play Elkins on Monday but that contest was postponed by the weather.
They will return to the courts Tuesday at Morgantown.
The results:
Buckhannon-Upshur 5 Lewis County 2
Singles
No. 1 – Zach Stalnaker (LC) def. Aden Pitts (8-5)
No. 2 – Caden Andrick (B-U) def Trenton Bush (8-0)
No. 3 – Mauricio Menendez (B-U) def. J. W. Garrett (8-3)
No. 4 – Hank Phillips (B-U) def. Norman Tallhamer (8-1)
Doubles
No. 1 – Pitts and Andrick (B-U) def. Stalnaker and Bush (8-1)
No. 2 – Menendez and Phillips (B-U) def. Tallhamer and Scott Underwood (8-1)
No. 3 – Garrett and Allen Radcliff (LC) def. Bailey Cleavenger and Donovan Cutlip (9-8(9-7)).
Buckhannon-Upshur 6 John Marshall 1
Singles
No. 1 – Aden Pitts (B-U) def. Nate Flowers (8-0)
No. 2 – Caden Andrick (B-U) def. Colby Morris (8-0)
No. 3 – Mauricio Menendez (B-U) def. Mack Mills (8-3)
No. 4 – Hank Phillips (B-U) def. Kenny Arrick (8-0)
Doubles
No. 1 – Pitts and Andrick (B-U) def. Morris and Mills (8-1)
No. 2 – Menendez and Phillips (B-U) def. Flowers and Arrick (8-4)
No. 3 – Hayden Daniels and Fred Carroll (JM) def. Bailey Cleavenger and Donovan Cutlip (9-8(7-2))
