Last week, the Vikings defeated Western Alamance 5-4 in a first-round matchup, setting up the showdown with the southern branch of the county. Both matches were played at Union Pines, the No. 1 seed out of the Cape Fear Valley Conference.
"It's been a while since we've had a team reach the elite eight," said Viking coach John Frye, who has guided the boys' program for 35 years. "It's going to be tough from here on out."
Sam Stalls and Walker Buchan, both juniors, started the Vikings (22-1 overall) toward the second-round win by taking the top-two singles matches. Stalls reached a milestone during the match that only 26 other Viking players have reached: 100 wins for a career. Stalls is now 101-21 thanks to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Brad Totten at No. 2 singles, and then joining with Buchan to take a 10-6 win at No. 1 doubles over Totten and Thurman Murphy.
"That is an exclusive group to join," Frye said of Stalls' achievement. "And he did it in fine fashion by doing it at home in the state playoffs."
Buchan is not far behind his teammate in the search for 100 wins. Defeating Adam Moneypenny 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, combined with his win in doubles, puts the junior at 98-21 in his career.
Another junior, John Hipp, and freshman Will Fondrie also supplied important, although different, wins during the singles portion of the match. After winning the first set 6-3, Hipp fell behind 4-1 in the second set against Jake Jordan at No. 6 before eventually falling 6-4. In the third-set tiebreaker, he fell behind 5-2, but rallied to take the match 11-9.
"He (Hipp) showed extraordinary determination," Frye said. "He stuck in there. Sometimes you keep hitting it back -- it might not always be pretty -- but he did what he had to do to win."
On the other hand, Fondrie, who just picked up the game a little over a year ago, rolled through Gale Jordan by a 6-1, 6-2 score at No. 5 singles.
"He doesn't have a lot of background in tennis," Frye said, "but he is really training hard. He works every day after school, and then works during the weekend. He is growing into a good player."
Gary Garner, a sophomore, almost allowed the Vikings to close out the match in the singles portion. He dropped the first set 6-4 to Jared Elkins, but came back to take the second set 7-5, creating another Viking opportunity to win in the seven-point tiebreaker third-set format used in high school tennis. He was serving for match point at 6-5, but was broken by Elkins and wound up losing 8-6.
Leading 4-2 after singles, the win by Buchan and Stalls at No. 1 doubles proved to be the deciding point when Southern Alamance took last two doubles clashes.
With the win, the Viking boys move on to hold another home dual match next Tuesday. Frye, noting the youth of his team, doesn't make any claims about how far his team will go this year. But he has a good feeling about the team in general.
"All these players will be back next year," he said. "And they will be better. We are moving in the direction of being a special team. We have a chance to make that special status next year.
"We're not counting our team out this year, but we know we are going to be facing the special kind of teams that win state championships from here on out. We are going to just keep improving, working and climbing toward that level."
