DENVER — Forgetting about the past and concentrating on the future and present Monday afternoon was ironic for Evergreen junior Joe Cuntz.
The third-year varsity tennis player had never beaten D’Evelyn — not at No. 1 doubles in his freshman season or last year at No. 3 singles. But he couldn’t let those two previous meetings factor in this go-around with freshman Sam Billups as his partner at No. 1 doubles against the Jaguars’ JJ Reschi and Carter Dart.
Neither could he let the immediate past, like the first two sets, dictate how the decisive third set would go at D’Evelyn High School. It almost did, but it didn’t as Cuntz and Billups pulled off the exhilarating 6-2, 5-7, 11-9 victory.
“I’ve played here three years, and this is the first time I’ve beaten D’Evelyn,” Cuntz said. “They really showed up in the second set. They weren’t playing their best in the first. But in that second set, they really killed some shots off of our serve.”
But Cuntz and Billups’ perseverance paid off in the third set.
It was the only match Evergreen won in a 6-1 defeat Monday afternoon. D’Evelyn took all three singles matches and No. 2 doubles in straight sets, while posting its own three-set victory at No. 3 doubles when Dylan Moran and Mateo Zimmer clipped EHS’ Curran Anderson and Trey Mays 6-4, 1-6, 10-5.
The match at No. 4 doubles between the Cougars’ Jack Booth and Charlie Brown against Vince Cushnie and Jake Davis was halted in the second set due to darkness. Cushnie and Davis won the first set 6-3 and were leading 1-0 in the second.
Rain tried to win out, serving up a postponement on Aug. 20 — the original date for the match, a delay to the start of Monday’s rescheduled match and a light sprinkle during it. But the weather held off just enough, especially for Cuntz and Billups.
“It really was a hard battle,” Billups said. “That was a really tough match.”
It was made tougher in the third set when the Evergreen duo got up 4-0 before D’Evelyn knotted it up multiple times, including at 9-all. But the Cougars tandem won the final two points and the match.
“We had to push forward,” Billups said.
Editor Michael Hicks can be reached at 303-350-1039 or via email at mhicks@evergreenco.com.