Warrior Men's Tennis Sweep Through Rival Titans

High School tennis in northeast Georgia, held one of its better rivalry matches Thursday afternoon, as the Oconee and North Oconee boys squared off for a showdown at the Warriors' home courts. The weather held steady for Thursday's match, which in 2013 means it was once again very cold and windy.

In any event, when the sun began to sink over Hog Mountain Road, Dan Gruetter's Warrior men had swept through the Titan men 4-1, and claimed yet another 8-AAA regular season title for the veteran coach. Gruetter's OCHS men won at all spots, except #1 singles, to soundly defeat the Titans for the second time in three years.

The match was headlined by two red-hot sophomore singles players on each side, with undefeated 2013 records. The Titans' highly talented #1 Peter Bertran, having never lost a match in high school for 2012 or 2013, gave up only two games, to the Warriors' #1 Will McDonald, enroute to the Titans lone point, posting an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win. OCHS' Drew Horsley, also undefeated in 2013 and holding a stellar 15-0 season record, kept things even by answering to the tune of 6-0, 6-0 at #2 singles over Aashal Dave.

OCHS also dominated in doubles, as the Warrior men continued to gain momentum Thursday. Number one doubles Dan Madden and Hunter Pritchard breezed to a 6-1, 6-3 win over David Sloan and Bo Brantley. One court down, Chandler Shields and Zach Miner also won impressively 6-2, 6-1 over Titan duo Mitch Smith and Kendrick Hughes.

With the match in hand for the Warriors, attention then centered around one of the day's best matches at number 3 singles, where Mitchell Graves and Kyle Hutto worked their way into three set showdown. Graves won the first set, 6-4, but Hutto responded with a 7-6 win to split sets, and force a 10-point tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, OCHS' Graves fell behind 3-5, but then held off the challenge for a nifty 10-5 comeback win, giving the Warriors a 4-1 win.

The Warrior men remain undefeated in region, with a perfect 6-0 record, and 10-5 overall through a demanding 2013 schedule. The Titans fall to 4-2 in region, 6-4 overall.

The Warriors and Titans both hit the road again Tuesday, with OCHS at Elbert County, while the Titans travel to Franklin County. Both matches are scheduled for 4:30pm.

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