Socastee tennis routs Irmo in playoff opener

The Socastee boys tennis team keeps on rolling.

With a 6-0 win over Irmo in their Class AAAA playoff opener Tuesday at Prestwick Country Club, the Braves remained undefeated and keep gaining momentum moving forward.

“The important thing for us was it built our confidence because none of our positions lost more than two games in any one set so it was a pretty dominant win for us,” Socastee coach Kirk McQuiddy said. “We have our next match here at Prestwick and we won all of our positions and did not have to play No. 1 doubles because we already convincingly won the match.”

Kyle Barr and Britton Bellamy – who have been undefeated in singles and doubles play for the last two seasons – continued to dominate as the duo each won their singles matches for the Braves on Tuesday. Barr defeated Andy Reed 6-0, 6-2 and Bellamy took down Greg Raft 6-0, 6-2. McQuiddy pointed out how much of benefit it is to have such dominant players at the top of the lineup.

“It’s a tremendous advantage because if they win their singles matches and doubles match that means we only have to win one more out of four positions to win the match,” McQuiddy said. “They’ve been our strength, but we have some kids coming up that are really strong in Noah Johnson, Robert Warstler and Connor Barr; they’re going to be very good for us coming up.”

On Tuesday, Warstler and Barr teamed up at No. 2 doubles and took down Ryan Lagroon and Adam Dimaggio 6-0, 6-1.

“I was very encouraged by our No. 2 doubles team, which we’re trying to formulate as we go forward in the playoffs,” McQuiddy said. “We know No. 2 doubles is going to be very important moving forward.”

In the past few years, the team that has given Socastee the most trouble has been Hilton Head. But with the Braves moving up to Class AAAA, the Seahawks will no longer be in Socastee’s way.

However, some new foes may be on the Braves’ radar.

“This year in Class AAAA, we have at least two or three teams in the Lower State and at least two teams in the Upper State that would be just as tough competition as we had against Hilton Head the past few years,” McQuiddy said. “Those schools are Spartanburg, Wando, Lexington, Dorman and of course South Aiken.”

South Aiken, the 2013 state champions and the runner-up in 2014, is in the same bracket as Socastee and the schools could meet on Monday if they both win in the next round.”

“They’re a strong, strong team,” McQuiddy said of the Thoroughbreds. “Assuming we beat [the Summerville-James Island winner], South Aiken is probably the other top team and we’ll see them Monday.”

McQuiddy said he and his team enjoyed dethroning West Florence from atop the Region VI-AAAA standings this season.

“We had momentum in the sense that the team that has dominated this region for the last 20 years has been West Florence and we beat them twice with pretty solid scores,” McQuiddy said. “So we had some tough competition coming in but we have a lot of real big challenges moving forward because the quality of teams is getting much better as we move through the playoffs.”

With such a dominant win, McQuiddy has the ultimate confidence in his team.

“What stood out basically was that each one of these kids was totally focused on their match; you could tell that by the fact that they lost very few games,” he said. “I’m very, very confident because I know my kids will give 150 percent. They’re committed to getting back to the state finals and I think we can play with anybody and any given day we can beat anybody. I’ve got a lot of confidence in my team.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Socastee tennis routs Irmo in playoff opener."