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Western downs Blacksburg for state title shot

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Gray Evans, Tom Lewis and Will Diamond wasted little time giving Western Albemarle the edge. Drew Loving and Timmy O’Shea then battled through to make it a lighter day for the Warriors. A 5-1 win over Blacksburg Friday afternoon kept Western from having to play in doubles, and as such, the Warriors head into their Group AA championship against E.C. Glass with relatively fresh legs.

“At 5-1, this match was a lot closer than it sounds,” said Western coach Andrew Wymer. “So Blacksburg was ready, came out to play and we had to work hard to win here today.”

Just as they did on Monday against Jamestown in the quarterfinals, both Evans and Lewis cruised with straight wins over the Bruins’ Mathew Long and Rohan Kumar respectively, 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-1 to push their team to a 2-0 lead.

“Tom and Gray, I knew they were great players, but they have really come on this postseason,” Wymer said. “They’re efficient. They don’t mess around, don’t waste time and they take care of business on the court and keep unforced errors low and serve well. They’ve stepped their game up, hit another level.”

Shortly thereafter, Will Diamond bounced back from his loss in singles against Jamestown to beat Blacksburg’s David Rouhoniemi 6-0, 6-1 to make it 3-0.

Western needed just two more wins to forgo doubles play but at the time Cam Scot, Loving and O’Shea sat in split going into their third sets.

Loving gave the Warriors their fourth win as he fought through a hard fought match with Nicholas Evlinger, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Loving trailed 3-2 in the third set but finished strong to push his team one step closer to the win.

“It was tense and the first set I wasn’t hitting my serves well and he was hitting his really well,” Loving said. “The second and third I got my serves in and got his serves back instead of giving up aces… my approach after that was to be patient and not go for too much because I thought he’d miss eventually.”

After Loving won, Wymer approached O’Shea in the middle of his third set to deliver a motivating message.

O’Shea won his first set against Thomas Ducker 6-2, but fell in the second 2-6 and faced a 3-0 hole in the third before he turned it around.

“I was able to talk to him during a timeout and tell him that Drew won his match and that he needed to find a way to dig in,” Wymer said. “If he trusts himself, he’s fine. He came back and played really, really well.”

A junior on a ladder of five seniors, O’Shea fought back as Ducker was hampered by cramps to win 6-4 in the third set and save his team from a round of doubles.

“It was really tough and I dug myself a nice hole in the third by going down 3-0,” O’Shea said. “I just started to play loose and then things started working for me. When he got hurt a little, that gave me a boost of confidence, that kind of thing always does. I kept coming at the net and then closed it out.”

Western will face E.C. Glass for the third time this season today at Virginia Tech starting at 9 a.m.

“Glass is tough and we know we have a tough match ahead,” Wymer said. “We were fortunate to split with them earlier this year. In the match we won it came down to the last match so we know we have to be at our best to have a chance (at a state title).”

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