UHA’s Ethan Alexander advanced to Tuesday’s 2nd Region tennis semifinal with a pair of wins in Henderson County on Monday to highlight a solid first day for the Blazers.
Alexander, the 3rd seed, began his evening with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Fort Campbell’s Ryan Rivera. Things were more challenging in the quarterfinal matchup with Webster County’s Vincent Major, but Alexander advanced and punched his ticket to the state tournament with a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 win.
On Tuesday, Alexander will face Madisonville-North Hopkins’ Josh Plain, the region’s top seed, with a spot in the championship match on the line.
Will Bryan eased past Caldwell County’s Nick Adams 6-2, 6-0 in his opener to advance to face Fort Campbell’s 2nd-seeded Andrew Haughenbury in the quarterfinals. After dropping the opening set 2-6, Bryan battled back to push the second to a tie-breaker, eventually falling 6-7 (1-7).
In doubles play, Shahyan Khan and Zohaib Iqbal advanced past Webster’s Eli Byrum and Lane Dailey 6-2, 6-4, before knocking off Madisonville’s Tate Young and Kael Knight 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-8.
The weary duo met Hopkinsville’s 2nd-seeded James Folz and Spencer Powell, dropping the first set 2-6 and falling in a hard-fought second 5-7.
The team of freshmen Rudra Patel and Matthew Couch received a first-round bye but were beaten 0-6, 0-6 the top-seeded Jordan and Ryan Hammett of Caldwell County.
