LAPEL — The Lapel Bulldogs tennis team had won five-straight Madison County titles. No. 6 was on the line with the score at 2-2 when the deciding match against Madison-Grant fell into the hands of two Bulldogs with only a few varsity matches of experience under their belts.
After nearly three hours on the Bulldog courts, the Lapel streak remained intact thanks to the No. 2 doubles team of Cam Gooding and Colin Vipperman. They pulled out a victory after losing their first set 7-5 and facing elimination in the second.
Gooding and Vipperman were down in the second set 5-2 but rallied and rattled their opponents. They took the set and went on to command the third and deciding set with a 6-1 win.
Coach Justin Coomer was elated with the heart-stopping win.
“We’ve won five in a row. I thought that was it. They could have thrown in the towel, but to come through is unbelievable,” Coomer said. “I’m so proud of our guys.”
Coomer said he thought prior to the outing it would come down to Gooding and Vipperman.
“I had a good idea that was how it would go down,” he said. “Didn’t know we’d be down a set 2-5 and come back and win.”
The duo seemed to thrive when adversity loomed. After the comeback win in the second set, Gooding and Vipperman found themselves down 40-0 against the Argyles’ Corbin Fox and Bryce Metzger in Game 1 of the final set. Another dig-deep rally brought them the win, and the momentum steamrolled all the way to the Madison County trophy.
The exhausted pair were all smiles and relieved.
“Once you’re down, you have to have that mind-set going into that second set to win it,” Vipperman said.
“We went up to each other and said ‘Let’s not try to hit winner shots.’ We tried to keep the ball in play and hopefully they would mess up,” Gooding said.
“I think it worked out well,” Vipperman said. “Once we started coming back, I’m pretty sure they got nervous and they started messing up, and that gave us more adrenaline.”
No. 1 Lapel singles player Jesse McCurdy was the first to tally a win in the match with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Isaac Bair lost in No. 2 singles 6-3, 6-3, and Corbin Renihan scored the other win for the Bulldogs with a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles. In No. 1 doubles, Nick Thalls and Trevor Whaley lost 6-1, 6-0.
Vipperman and Gooding said they were motivated by wanting to win for McCurdy, who is a senior.
“We didn’t want to have him go out without winning his last county,” Gooding said.
To get to the finals, the Bulldogs defeated Frankton 5-0 and Pendleton Heights 3-2.