Brice's comeback spurs Gryphons to victory

Tyler Brice sat on a bench after the first set of his singles match, analyzing what exactly went wrong during those 13 hard-fought games.

Knowing every point against Big East favorites Wilson Fike was valuable to springing a potential upset, the Rocky Mount High sophomore dug in and tried to change the momentum. He became more aggressive on the court and pinned his opponent, John Gliarmis, deep with his forehands, forcing error after error en route to a 6-0 romp.

But the battle had just begun for Brice, who saved a pair of match points in the third-set tiebreaker to win the match before letting out a giant grunt in celebration. It proved to be a critical point in the Gryphons’ tight 5-4 victory over the Golden Demons.

“After the first set, it was just ‘what am I doing?,’” Brice said. ”I tried to sit on the bench and think about what I was doing, going through everything. I came up and just realized I needed to play my game.

“I was just struggling to be consistent and finally after calming down and starting to breath and exhale on my shots more, I was able to play deeper on the court and get him on his back and then I could come in and attack.”

Brice’s victory was a major boost for the Gryphons (7-0, 3-0), who huddled in a bathroom near the baseball field to further energize themselves for doubles. Brice and classmate George Shannon used the momentum from Brice’s singles win to capture their doubles match, the only one the Gryphons ended up winning.

After falling behind 3-2, the duo stormed back to take a 4-3 lead, and then captured the final three games as well to win the match, 8-6.

“Everyone was extremely excited about it,” Brice said. ”It really pumped me up and George and I knew we had to go out there and get that doubles win. It was a great feeling, honestly, to be rolling into doubles.”

Although Brice’s victory was an important trendsetter for the team, it was far from the only important match the Gryphons captured Tuesday.

Langley Salter won his first set 7-5 before struggling in a 6-2 second-set loss that set up a third-set tiebreaker. With most of his teammates peering through the fence surrounding the court, the senior hit clutch shot after clutch shot to win the match, 7-5, 2-6, 10-6.

Coach Barry Nethercutt said Salter’s win and the straight-set triumph of Sam Phillips were other critical victories for Rocky Mount High.

“Langley and Sam, early on in their first sets, they were missing way too much and were just beating ourselves,” Nethercutt said. ”Those guys picking up their level of consistency (really stood out).”

Shannon had no problem with his singles opponent, cruising past Walker Gliarmis, 6-1, 6-1, to put the Gryphons on the board early. But Fike struck right back with Michael Anders and Matt Brown winning within a few minutes of one another to take a brief 2-1 lead. Phillips knotted the score at 2 before Salter and Brice put Rocky Mount High in a position where it only needed to win one doubles match.

It became evident quickly the burden of that win would fall onto Brice and Shannon’s shoulders when Fike raced out to commanding leads at both No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. The Golden Demons eventually won both matches by identical 8-2 scores.

The Gryphons entered the season believing they could potentially capture their first conference crown since 2010, but knew it would be a tough battle at the top. With a bit of luck — Fike’s No. 1 player Sunny Sandhu sat out singles due to an illness — Rocky Mount High earned a victory that should instill belief in the team that the Big East title is within reach.

“We should be building in confidence with each match,” Nethercutt said, ”… if we’re not building in confidence then we’re not doing something right. Having said that we have our nemesis (Southern Nash) on Thursday … so we need to be just as determined Thursday as we were (Tuesday).”

by Josh Walfish
Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Tuesday, March 22, 2016