Polk sweeps past East Rutherford in home tennis clash

Polk County romped to a 9-0 victory Monday over East Rutherford in a Mountain Foothills 7 Conference boys tennis match at Polk.

The Wolverines improved to 3-1 overall, 2-1 in league matches. East Rutherford dropped to 1-1, 1-1.

How it happened: Polk County largely rolled through the singles matches to secure the win. The toughest test of the day came at No. 2 singles, where Jack Smith rebounded from a 4-6 loss in the opening set to score a 6-0 second-set victory, then claimed an 11-9 tiebreaker for the match win.

That proved the only set that Polk lost in singles, and then the Wolverines’ doubles teams swept those matches to complete the team’s overall sweep.

The day included two more wins for Polk County No. 1 player Banks Barber, recently named by the Citizen-Times in Asheville as one of the players to watch in the area this spring.

Next up: Polk County is slated to travel Wednesday to Brevard for a 4 p.m. match.

SINGLES
1. Banks Barber d. Parker Emery 6-1, 6-0; 2. Jack Smith d. CJ Hollifield 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 tiebreaker; 3. Riley Ballentine d. Reagan Sprouse 6-1, 7-5; 4. Charlie Jackson d. Chase Pacheco 6-1, 6-1; 5. Graham Turner d. Isaiah Granja-Sosa 6-1, 6-2; 6. McClain Koistinen d. Colby Jones 6-0, 6-2.

DOUBLES
1. Barber-Ballentine d. Hollifield-Emery 8-4; 2. Smith-Turner d. Sprouse-Granja-Sosa 8-1; 3. Jackson-Amitrano d. Pacheco-Jones 8-3.