Christiansburg – #3 seeded Jabin Talley and Ethan Richardson dropped the first set of the quarterfinal match 6-2 to their opponents from Cave Spring and it appeared that the fans from Carroll County were about to witness the end of a four year run that has put Talley into the CCHS record books 📚.

Then in a blink of an eye the Dynamic Duo flipped a switch, storming back to winning the second set 6-1 to force a tiebreaker. The winner 🏆 would be the first team to score ten points and to do so with a lead of a minimum of two points.

These same four players needed a tie breaker in their team Regional tournament earlier at Cave Spring. That day the Cavaliers fell just short but they made sure that recent history would not repeat itself.

Playing in a free swinging manner, CCHS closed out the tiebreaker by a 10-4 margin. The victory was #74 for Talley over his four years. This victory came with the added significance of extending the season and career one more day !

Talley and Richardson will return to the courts at Christiansburg High School Wednesday at 11:00 am for the Doubles semi-finals. The match will begin shortly after the Singles Championship matches have concluded.

Talley earned victory #73 earlier in the morning in the Singles Quarterfinals. Playing as the #3 seed in that draw as well, Talley advanced with a convincing 6-2, 6-0 victory over his counterpart from William Byrd.

#2 seed Nick McReynolds (Abingdon) used his relentless left handed ground strokes to keep Talley at bay in the more competitive than the score indicates, 6-2, 6-2.

The Singles event stayed true to the seeding, leaving a classic Finals match between the Top Two Seeds tomorrow morning. Shortly after that showdown concludes our duo will go in search of victory #75 for Talley.

We are closing in on the final five days of competition for the 2023-2024 School year with six Student Athletes and the group has a common denominator – each of the group played Basketball 🏀 this past winter.

Davis Reitzel, Jabin Talley, Ethan Richardson and Brayden Smoot each played for Anthony Barnes while Corrie Delp and Alyssa Ervin were part of Marc Motleys Girls Basketball 🏀 team.

Talley and Delp are competing in their natural sport this week while the other four are simply enjoying their Spring time. Three Seniors (Reitzel, Talley and Ervin), two Juniors (Richardson and Smoot) and one Sophomore (Delp) with the Coaches still practicing their trait being Greg Talley and Shawn Montgomery.

Today we are here at CHS with Talley and Richardson. Talley is the #3 seed in the Individual field of eight and the doubles team also earned the #3 spot.

Talley has just finished off his first round opponent, 6-2 & 6-0. The second match (semi-finals) will get underway shortly.

We will be here until things wrap up for the day.

#GoCavs

11:35 – Semi-finals underway

It turns out we have a third member of the Final Six with us today as Ervin is hear showing support for her Cousin, Nick McReynolds, recent graduate 🎓 of Abingdon High School. McReynolds is the #2 seed and is Talleys current opponent.

Both of these young men are doing a fair amount of talking to themselves in between entertaining ground strokes.

McReynolds jumped out to any early lead at 5-0 but Talley is fighting 💪 his way back into the opening set !

12:05 pm – First set ends at 6-2. Winner advances to the Finals against the Top Seed.

2nd set, Talley is trailing 2-1 (12:14). Jabin has shaken off his slow start and is now matching the lefty shot for shot.

The Sun 🌞 is playing peek a boo behind the clouds, leaving both players going from sunlight to cloud ☁️ every few minutes. Toss in the wind doing the same and it creates quite the mixed bag of conditions.

Now2-4

12:37 – Semi-final match is over now, ending 6-2, 6-2 in favor of AHS.

The singles career of our All-Time wins leader has ended but the doubles are still awaiting.

The Singles went chalk up to the finals which will be played tomorrow with #1 vs #2.

Talley and Richardson will be taking the court shortly.

1:15 pm is the approximate start time for the Doubles Quarterfinals.

1:25 – Doubles underway !

#6 seeded team is from Cave Spring.

Cavs – 0,1,1 (lead 2-1), 0,0 (trail 3-2)

0,0 – Trail 5-2

1:49 – Dropped first set 6-2.

This will be the final match of the day either way for the Cavs duo. The winner of the match will return at 11am tomorrow for the semi-finals.

Carroll County starts out hot 🔥 1,1,1 for a 3-0 lead in the second set.

1,0 – Now 4-1…..1 (5-1) – 1 (6-1)

Tiebreaker now – race to 10, must win by 2…

Cavs leading 5-2, 7-3, 8-3, 9-3, 9-4, 10-4. CAVS live to fight another day !!

We will return here tomorrow at 11am !