ALBANY —
The Southland Raiders recently completed their regular season with a huge win over their arch rival Deerfield-Windsor to secure a perfect 16-0 season. The Raiders won the regular season region title, but they had to win the GISA Region 3-AAA Tournament to claim the region tournament championships as well. The Raiders would do just that, as the beat Deerfield-Windsor by a mere one point to claim the region tournament crown to add to their already impressive list of accomplishments this year.
The Raiders competed in the first and second rounds of the region tournament on Monday, and they continued to show why they are the undisputed top team in Region 3-AAA.
In their first matches, Sachin Kothari and Micah Whittaker would each win their first set 6-0 before ending the match with a 6-1 victory in the second set. Kothari would take down Cole McClain of Tiftarea in his first round match, and Whittaker would defeat Cullan Bryant of Calvary Christian. Kyle Crew would only surrender one game in his first set against Trey Spillers before shutting out Spillers in the second set to earn the easy match victory.
In the round of eight, the Raiders continued their strong play. Kothari would take on Ben Hoopes of Deerfield who defeated Tyler Williams in his first match. Sachin would continue his dominance by winning his first set 6-0, and closing out Hoopes with a 6-1 second set victory to advance to the final four.
Micah Whittaker would have to battle a tough Lance Parks from Westfield in his round of eight. Micah dropped his first set 4-6 before out-dualing Parks in the second set for a 7-5 win. In the tie breaker, Whittaker won the first two games and the tiebreaker to earn the match victory and advance to the final four to go up against his teammate Kothari.
Crew would also take on a tough opponent in Nasser Rizvi from Deerfield. Rizvi beat his first opponent 6-0, 6-0 to advance to the second round against Crew. Kyle defeated Rizvi 6-4 in the first set to take a huge lead over Deerfield’s number two singles player. In the second set, Crew won even more impressively with a 6-3 win to earn himself a spot in the final four.
The win by Crew meant that three of the four players in the final four were from Southland.
In the final four, Kothari took on Whittaker for a spot in the finals. Kothari had yet another excellent match, and he won his two sets 6-1, and 6-0 to earn a spot in the finals.
Crew then had to take on arguably the best player in the entire state in Brian Jordan of Tiftarea. Jordan showed why he is one of the top tennis players in the state of Georgia by defeating Crew 6-1, 6-0 to earn a spot in the finals against Kothari.
In the finals, Jordan was equally as impressive as he was against Crew. Jordan blanked Kothari in the first set before winning the second set 6-1 and earning the title as individual region champion.
Crew and Whittaker would then play a consolation match to determine the number three and number four seeds in the state individual tournament. Crew would beat his teammate 6-1 in the first set, but Whittaker would battle back and defeat Crew 7-6 to force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Whittaker would squeak out a 9-7 set victory and earn the number three seed in the state tournament.
In the doubles play, McClain Cummins and Dalton Rooks would win their first round match against Alex Shelton and J.C. Coleman of Westfield 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals the Southland boys would fall to Will Calhoun and Pete Langstaff of Deerfield.
Southland’s second doubles team of Matt Ledger and Alex Arnold dropped their first round match to Bryson Hood and Kyle Benard of Tiftarea 1-6, 3-6.
The State Individual Tournament is set to take place at JDSTC in Macon on Tuesday, April 17, and Wednesday, April 18. Rounds one and two will be held on Tuesday, and the semi finals and finals will be held on Wednesday.
Local Sports
Related Photos
-
The Southland boys’ tennis team won both the regular season region title and the region tournament championship with an undefeated season Submitted Photo
-
Number three singles player Kyle Crew made it to the semifinals with a huge win over Nasser Rizvi to help secure Southland’s Region 3-AAA Tournament championship. Scott Phillips
-
Micah Whittaker has been one of the Raiders most dependable players this year at number two singles. Whittaker made it to the semifinals before losing to teammate Sachin Kothari. Scott Phillips
-
Senior number one singles player Sachon Kothari had an amazing season for the Raiders. Kothari advanced to the finals in the tournament to help the Raiders beat Deerfield. Scott Phillips
Southland tennis wins region tournament
- Local Sports
-
-
Lady Jets’ Portia McCray signs with Lander University
South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets sophomore guard Portia McCrary has signed a letter of intent to play basketball with Lander University, a small public university located in Greenwood, South Carolina, for the 2013–2014 season. Lander University plays in the Peach Belt Conference.
-
Leonard Pope Kids Day provides fun, laughter
On Saturday, June 15 children from across Sumter County descended on the Sumter County Fairgrounds to participate in the 7th Annual Leonard Pope Kid’s Day. Just as he does every year, Pope hosts the event as a way to get kids active by providing fun activities and entertainment for the children at no cost.
-
Marion County standout kicker A.J. Wells commits to Appalachian State
A long recruiting process came to an end on Tuesday for Marion County senior place kicker and punter A.J. Wells. After completing a recent visit to Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Wells had seen all he needed to see to make his college choice. Following his senior year at Marion County this season, Wells will don the black and gold as Mountaineer on the Appalachian State football team.
-
SGTC Lady Jets sign Kadejah Saunders
South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets head basketball coach James Frey signed Kadejah Saunders from Tarpon Springs, Florida to be a member of the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets 2013–2014 basketball team.
-
Dwight Harris Boys Club promotes active summer time lifestyle
Four years ago, Dwight Harris noticed that many of the area’s local youth were cruising the streets and finding their way into trouble during the summer months between school years. Rather than looking the other way, Harris decided to make a difference by creating a summer time activity for local boys of all ages and races to participate in. In the summer of 2009 he began the Dwight Harris Boys Club of Americus, Inc. as a youth development program to give children a fun activity to keep them off the streets and bridge the local racial gap.
-
GSW's Gahman named PING All-Region
Georgia Southwestern men's golfer Nate Gahman was named to the NCAA Division II PING All-Region Southeast Team on Friday afternoon by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
-
Lady ‘Cane Mollie McGowan earns Academic All-District Cross Country honors
Mollie McGowan, a senior on the Georgia Southwestern women's cross country team, has been named to the 2012-13 Capital One Academic All-District III Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Team.
-
Local runners dominate ‘Loop the Lake’ 5k at Georgia Veterans Park
On Saturday runners from several southern states converged on Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park in Cordele for a run to benefit the GraceWay Recovery Residence in Albany, Georgia. GraceWay is a non-profit, faith-based, long-term substance abuse/addiction treatment community for women, and the ‘Loop the Lake’ run around Lake Blackshear was organized to raise funds for this great cause.
-
Star Racing brings home a win from Englishtown
Sovereign-Star Racing’s Michael Ray claimed his second career victory in his first final round appearance of 2013 at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., this past weekend.
-
Hughes highlights postseason awards with All-State selection
Dillon Hughes made sure that he put an exclamation point on the end of a stellar baseball career at Southland Academy during his senior season. Hughes was recently selected to the 2013 GISA Class AAA All-State Team following a monster year, capping off postseason honors that included three All-Region 3-AAA selections and two Region 3-AAA Honorable Mention selections.
- More Local Sports Headlines
-
