CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Cleveland boys' tennis team played well Thursday. The opponent just played better.
Siegel took a 3-2 lead into doubles in the Class AAA sectional match at Lee University and quickly disposed of the Blue Raiders' No. 2 duo for a 4-2 win and a spot in next week's Spring Fling state tournament at Old Fort State Park in Murfreesboro.
The Stars will face Ravenwood on Tuesday.
Cleveland (13-1) received wins by Adam Klibisz and Jared Holland, its No. 4 and 5 singles players. The Stars countered with wins by Hussain Alzubaidi, Chadwick Daugherty and Ben Betzler, and then Alzubaidi and Ryan Jacobs won 8-1 over Klibisz and Allen Swetman to clinch the team victory.
"It was a tough loss, but we were in it the whole time," Cleveland coach Eric Stiles said. "The biggest thing I tell the guys is to not give the match away. Make the other team hit one more shot, and for the most part at times we did, at times we didn't, but we were right there in it and it could have gone either way."
Cleveland graduates its top four players and five of its top six after losing in the sectional to Siegel for the third time in four seasons.
"We have a couple of guys that have been in the sectionals before," Stiles said. "We've seen this type of player before, and we were as ready as we could have been.
"We just lost to a better team."
Lady Trojans top Siegel
Soddy-Daisy got by Siegel in the AAA girls' sectional, 4-2, for a berth in the Spring Fling.
Olivia Crawley, Shelby Noe and Bailey Coyner won in singles for the Lady Trojans, and Crawley and Coyner clinched the team triumph with a doubles win.
Signal wins in A/AA
Signal Mountain won 5-0 in its Class A/AA sectional against Red Bank. Grant Williams, Roger Trombley, Thomas Thelen, Carson Williams and Jay Griggs were the singles victors.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.