Cardinal Newman’s William Appleton leaps for a volley in his No. 3 doubles match. Appleton won his No. 5 singles match against Trinity Collegiate’s Charlie Fu, and then teamed up with Jack Rollins to beat Fu and Tony Dong at No. 3 doubles.
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For the fourth time since 2018, the Cardinal Newman Cardinals ran into another buzzsaw at the SCISA boys tennis State Championship match Tuesday, May 6. This time the venue was the Tennis Center of Camden, and the opponent was the Trinity Collegiate Titans. The Titans claimed their second straight SCISA 4A title with a 5-3 win over the Cardinals, and pair of girls made the difference.
Trinity’s No. 2, Mahaley Swink, and No. 4, Chandler Hyman, won their matches, respectively, against Cardinal Newman’s Jake Pryor and Jack Rollins. Swink took hers 6-0, 6-0, and Hyman won 6-4, 6-2. Hyman teamed up with Trinity No. 3 Evan Watts at No. 2 doubles to beat Logan Ashley and Sebastian Soto 6-0, 6-0 giving the Titans the 5-3 win. Swink and Trinity No. 1 Ian Royce were leading Cardinal Newman No. 1 Wyatt Goodale and Pryor 6-0, 4-3 at No. 1 doubles when Hyman and Watts finished.
With a smile and a sincere chuckle, Cardinal Newman head coach Jim Hinson said of having to face girls in the boys state championship match, “I hope this is the last year. They’re very good girls. I hope they ( SCISA) take care of it, and boys will play with boys and girls will play with girls, but the girls were very good.”
Cardinal Newman No. 1 Wyatt Goodale celebrates after winning a point against Trinity’s Ian Royce. Woodale was named the SCISA Region I-4A Player of the Year.
The Cardinals raced to a 2-0 lead as William Appleton at No. 5 singles downed Charlie Fu 6-0, 6-0, and Alex Moon beat Tony Dong 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6 singles. Both matches lasted about 20 minutes. Swink got Trinity on the board with her win over Pryor, and then Watts beat Ashley 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles to tie the overall match score at 2-2.
In the most contentious match of the day, Royce took the first set over Goodale 6-3 at No. 1 singles and led 4-1 in the second when Woodale became visibly upset after Royce called his volley out to end a game. Woodale requested and got line judges to monitor their calls for the rest of the match. Royce went on to take the set 6-2 to give the Titans a 3-2 lead.
In perhaps the most competitive match of the day, Hyman built a 5-2 first set lead over Rollins. Rollins fought back to cut the deficit to 5-4, but Hyman was able to regain control and win the set 6-4. Hyman built a 3-1 lead in the second and eventually won the second set 6-2 to give Trinity a 4-2 lead going into doubles play.
Appleton and Rollins made quick work of Fu and Dong at No. 3 doubles to get Cardinal Newman within one, but Hyman and Watts returned the favor shortly thereafter giving the Titans the title.
Hinson, this year’s SCISA Region I-4A Coach of the Year and a member of the South Carolina Tennis Patrons Foundation Tennis Hall of Fame, took over the Cardinal tennis program in 2019.
“ This is my third time, Cinderella story,” Hinson said of his trips to the state championship match. “ So, I hope one day it’s going to be mine. The boys gave a good effort. They played against a good team. We had our chances, but today just wasn’t the day.”
The Cardinals have been so close so many times, but getting over the hump has proven difficult in the past and may be even harder moving forward.
“We had our chances; we had some seniors this year, but next year we won’t,” Hinson said. “So, it’s just a matter of trying to get some people to play, more or less, all year long. We don’t necessarily have tournament players at Cardinal Newman. They’re very good players, but they don’t necessarily play during the year, and some of the schools that do, they have a little bit of an advantage. We’re always in there trying to do our best.”
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