Eight matches. Eight clean sweeps.
That’s how the Thomas Jefferson Cavaliers have begun the 2022 spring tennis season.
Thomas Jefferson kept its record unblemished with a 9-0 win over Joplin on Monday at the TJ courts.
Last year’s Class 2 runner-up, Thomas Jefferson has not dropped a singles or doubles match in any of the eight dual victories.
“The start to the season has been fantastic,” Cavaliers coach Tom Brumfield said. “You can’t do much better than what we’ve been doing, so it’s been great. Our lineup is solid from top to bottom. I’m very pleased with the whole group right now. At the start of the year I thought we’d be all right. But the younger guys have really done a great job. They’ve vastly improved.”
The Cavaliers swept all three doubles matches to start the dual.
At No. 1 doubles, Thomas Jefferson’s Ian Ding and Tyler Brouhard defeated Adam Badr and Josiah Hazlewood 8-0, while Prithvi Nagarajan and Lala Qian beat Joplin’s Michael Mancipe and Hunter Merkley 8-1 at No. 2 doubles.
TJ’s Hari Nagarajan and Jack Goodhue defeated Aidan Kester and Chapel Braman 8-3 in the No. 3 doubles match.
At No. 1 singles, Ding defeated Badr 8-2, while Prithvi Nagarajan defeated Mancipe 8-0 at No. 2 singles and Brouhard won the No. 3 singles match 8-2 over Hazlewood.
In other singles matches, Qian defeated Merkley 8-0, Hari Nagarajan beat Kester 8-0 and Goodhue topped Braman 8-0.
“We were short our No. 1 player again today, Joseph Graham, but we hope to have him return to competition soon,” Joplin coach Aaron Stump said. “Everyone on the team played up a rank, which made for a difficult matchup against Thomas Jefferson.
“Ian Ding is a great player, and I was impressed to see Adam get two games on him in singles today,” Stump added. “Josiah was able to recognize errors in his play and adapt to win two games in his singles match, as well. Our No. 3 doubles team of Aidan Kester and Chapel Braman won the most games for our varsity team, earning three games in their doubles match.”
Joplin (0-5) hosts Ozark on Tuesday, while Thomas Jefferson meets Greenwood in Springfield on Thursday. The Cavaliers will be among the teams competing at Joplin’s invite on Friday.
“We’re going to see some tough teams coming up,” Brumfield said. “It will be interesting to see how we compare to them.”
