Albemarle’s Lee Wilson got his serve back and cruised. After weeks of struggling to find his rhythm at the service line but still winning in the Patriots’ No. 4 slot, Wilson got into a groove and won in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
Unfortunately for Albemarle, it was the only thing that went absolutely right for the Patriots’ boys tennis team, who fell 5-1 to Lake Braddock High at the Boar’s Head in the Group AAA quarterfinals Tuesday afternoon.
The wheels started to fall off for Albemarle when senior Jon Pyo, who Albemarle coach Chip Grobmyer said approached this week’s set of practices with a laser-like focus, drew a default from the official during his second set against Ian Huang. Pyo, frustrated by a string of lost points, took his irritation out on a ball and tried to smash the ball into the net. The ball missed the top of the net by an inch, and bounced before hitting Huang. That drew the automatic default for Pyo, ending his high school career abruptly.
“I’m walking up to him and the first thing he says to me is ‘coach, I’m sorry,’” Grobmyer said. “I said ‘Jon, you don’t need to apologize, it’s just an unfortunate thing…don’t worry about it.’ But he’s still going to take it hard because he feels like he let the team down. But I told him not to worry about it”
Huang was particularly gracious, telling Grobmyer and Pyo he hated that it ended like this and that he wanted to play the match out. Pyo spent three years as the No. 1 player for Albemarle and has had a brilliant career leading the Patriots to the first Northwest Region title in several years earlier this season.
Pyo was clearly frustrated by the incident afterward, but collected himself and cheered on teammate Brian Chen, who battled in the No. 2 spot but couldn’t get a win against Geoff Lawhorn to force the match to doubles. Down 5-2 in the second set after falling 7-5 in the opening set, Chen broke Lawhorn’s serve to cut the lead to 5-3 and give himself a shot, but Lawhorn broke right back to close out the match.
Junior Mike Barton fought hard for the Patriots at the No. 5 spot and got to set point in the second set but couldn’t close things out against Brett Jones of Lake Braddock.
Albemarle’s season ends with a 20-3 overall record.
Lake Braddock 5, Albemarle 1
Singles:
1. Ian Huang (LB) d. Jon Pyo, 7-5, DEF
2. Geoff Lawhorn (LB) d. Brian Chen, 7-5, 6-3
3. David Kim (LB) d. Ben Anderson, 6-0, 6-1
4. Lee Wilson (A) d. Matt Belcher, 6-1, 6-1
5. Brett Jones (LB) d. Mike Barton, 6-1, 7-5
6. Don Lawhorn (LB) d. Timmy Shaw, 6-1, 6-1
