North Mecklenburg and Hopewell build on last year's success

FROM THE LAKE NORMAN CITIZEN-Hopewell, North tennis teams return loads of experience

By Justin Parker

   When all is said and done in the battle for I-Meck Conference tennis supremacy this spring, chances are the teams from Hopewell and North Meck highs will have had something to do with who is on top. 
   It might even be them.
   The Titans and Vikings, who figure to compete for the league crown alongside defending 3A state champion Lake Norman and fellow 4A newcomer Mooresville, return many of their top players from last season’s teams, which made state playoff appearances and finished in the top tier of the ME-CA 7 Conference standings (North second, Hopewell third). 

North Meck
   The Vikings, who were 9-4 last season, return five players who played significant time in the starting lineup, including sophomore Collin Black, seniors Kyle Richardville, Kenny DeHart and Blake Weston and junior Garrett Mrzlak.
   Black, who played in the regionals last year, is currently playing in the No. 1 singles spot for the 2-2 Vikings, who most recently beat Lake Norman 5-4 Tuesday. As a freshman, Black, who is also a scratch golfer, played in the No. 6 spot, but earned the top seed this preseason, says third-year Viking coach Bill Connelly, who is also the football Vikings’ defensive line coach in the fall. 
   “He’s so athletic,” says Connelly. “He can do anything. He could probably play receiver on the football team. You name it. He’s just that type of kid. He’s the total package.”
   DeHart played in the third singles spot in 2009, while Weston was fourth, Richardville fifth, and Mrzlak entered the top six on occasion. Connelly says the five are basically interchangeable. 
   “These guys are so close,” he says. “Any one of them can beat the other on any given day. I could challenge match (for seeding) every day, and every day, it’d be a different outcome. That’s how close they are.”
   DeHart, the team’s lone returning all-conference player, and Richardville played in the regional doubles competition last season and comprise the Vikings’ No. 1 doubles team. Weston played in the singles regional last year, along with Black, his No. 2 doubles partner. Mrzlak and No. 6 singles player Wes Hagy, a senior, play No. 3 doubles. 
   Connelly says senior Brad Moore, currently seventh on the team in singles, could crack the top six at times this year. 
   A year ago, North lost only to Concord Robinson in the ME-CA 7 and fell to Winston-Salem Mount Tabor 5-4 in the first round of the 4A dual team playoffs. 
 
Hopewell
   Craig Smith remembers one November day in particular when it was raining, and his Titan tennis team continued on with its offseason training regimen. He told his players then that their training would pay dividends this spring. 
   “I’ve never had a harder working group of guys in the offseason,” says Smith, in his fifth year coaching the Titans. “We didn’t let the conditions affect what we did.”
   So far, so good on the payoff. 
   Through Tuesday’s 9-0 win over Olympic, the Titans were 7-2. A lot of that early-season success and the high expectations for a team that was 10-6 last year is traceable to the Titans’ top four players: senior Matt Alexander, junior John David Curlis, senior Jeremy Anderson and junior Brian Andersen, respectively. All of them played in the Titans’ top six in 2009 and went on to compete in regionals (Alexander in singles, the others in doubles). 
   “They lead us in experience and also set the tone with their work ethic,” says Smith. “They come to work every day, have kinda got the blue-collar, roll-up-their-sleeves mentality. The rest of the team feeds off them.”
Alexander, last year’s conference singles champ, is playing in the top six for the fourth straight year (No. 2 last season), while fellow all-conference selection Curlis is a three-year Titan starter (No. 3 in 2009). Newcomer Tyler Roberts, a junior, has stepped into the fifth spot after playing on the Titan soccer team last fall, and sophomore John Armato is playing in the No. 6 position. 
   Alexander and Curlis comprise the top Titan doubles tandem, with the Anderson-Andersen combo playing No. 2. Senior C.J. Rapp and junior Nick Jyothinagaram play the third doubles match. 
   Early this month, the Titans won the Huntington Learning Center Invitational they host, most notably dropping Lake Norman for the first time in school history.
   The Titans, who fell 5-1 to Ardrey Kell in the first round of the 4A playoffs last year, have received votes in all four of the 4A state polls posted by the N.C. High School Tennis Coaches Association this year.

Lake Norman
   The reigning 3A state champion Wildcats must replace their top four players from last year, including singles state finalist Trey McKee and Andrew McKinnon who now play at Wofford and Appalachian State, respectively. 
   Former No. 6 player Drew Harmon is playing in the top singles spot this year as Lake Norman (4-4) transitions to 4A play, while last season’s No. 5 player, Matt Crisp, is the second Wildcat in the lineup. The two also team up for the Wildcats’ No. 1 doubles pairing.
   A year ago, Lake Norman was 20-3 and defeated Southeast Guilford, Marvin Ridge, Ragsdale, Charlotte Catholic and Southern Nash to win the state title.