Henry cruises into 5A semifinals, goes for title today|[5/10/05]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 10, 2005

JACKSON – For a few moments, it looked as if Jordan Henry might be in for a long day.

The moment quickly passed, however, and Henry turned it into just another day at the office.

The Vicksburg High junior routed Oak Grove’s George Kandelaki, 6-1, 6-2, Monday to move into the semifinals of the Class 5A boys’ singles tournament at Parham Bridges Park in Jackson.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

Henry won 12 of the last 14 games in the second-round match, taking advantage of a blistering serve and numerous unforced errors by Kandelaki to cruise to his second victory of the day. In the first round on Monday morning, Henry beat Long Beach’s Matt Bierchenk 6-0, 6-0.

“He hit the ball really hard. A lot of times I just had to let him hit it and then hit it back,” Henry said. “I just played defense a lot. Make him hit it and make mistakes.”

And Kandelaki obliged.

After winning the first game of the match and forcing the next two to deuce before losing, Kandelaki fell apart. Henry didn’t lose a point in the fourth game of the first set to go up 4-1, then finished the next game with a pair of aces.

Twice in the second set, Henry won all four points on unforced errors by Kandelaki. About the only mistake Henry made came in the next-to-last game of the match, when he double-faulted twice on match point and lost.

Henry rebounded in the next game, though, hitting a quick winner at the net for the clinching point.

“His game was pretty much hit the ball in the court and let the opponent mess up, and that’s what I did,” Kandelaki said.

Henry will now face Northwest Rankin’s Chas Dunn, who also cruised through his first two matches, this morning. The winner will face either Madison Central’s Ryan Farlow, the tournament’s top seed, or Tupelo’s Jonathon Vinson at 1 p.m.

Dunn beat South Panola’s Grant Goforth 6-1, 6-0, in the first round, then routed Southaven’s Joseph Meek 6-1, 6-1 in the second on Monday. Dunn got the best of Henry in their last meeting, at a tournament last fall, and Henry was expecting another tough match.

“It should be a very good match,” Henry said. “I think I’m going to have to be a little more aggressive tomorrow. The farther you go in the tournament, the more aggressive you have to be.”

Henry was the only player from Vicksburg High and Warren Central to advance to the semifinals.

Vicksburg’s Angelique Moffett won her first round match against Southaven’s Kaja Stiksrud by default when Stiksrud didn’t show up. Moffett then lost 6-1, 6-0 to Northwest Rankin’s Alison Hartman in the second round. Warren Central’s boys’ doubles team of Steven Faulks and Tyler Wing survived a controversial finish in their first round victory over Clinton, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6.

Faulks was serving for the match when a tournament official halted play because of rain. No one heard the announcement, however, and the teams played out the point. After WC won it and, apparently, the match, the official ordered the point replayed after the rain delay.

“It was a pretty heated argument,” Faulks said, adding that he and Wing nearly had a point taken away for bad sportsmanship.

After the delay, Faulks and Wing quickly finished the match by winning the tiebreaker. Their second-round match didn’t go nearly as well. Northwest Rankin’s Blake Jeter and Andy Gurovich made short work of the WC tandem with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Jeter and Gurovich, the No. 2 seed in the doubles bracket, simply overwhelmed Faulks and Wing with power shots and strong serves.

“They’re just a better team,” Wing said.

In other matches involving Warren County players: