Fuquay-Varina boys tennis continues rise by beating Apex Friendship

With unprecedented roster depth, Fuquay-Varina boys tennis scored a dominant 8-1 home victory against Apex Friendship (0-7, 0-7) on Wednesday.

Fuquay (5-5, 4-5) heads into spring break having already surpassing its win total from a year ago.

“It’s great to go out on a high note with a positive attitude with a week off,” F-V coach Marshall Wortham said. “It’s always our goal to make the playoffs … We’ve come a long way since when I came here two years ago and we have expectations we’re trying to meet.”

The Bengals opened up the evening hot, sweeping all three doubles matches.

Owen Findley and Daniel Woo took the No. 3 doubles 8-0, Everett Dursham and Curtis Brugler won No. 2 8-2 and Ryan Walzer and Ian Dersham took the No. 1 8-5 in a match that lasted 69 minutes.

“It’s nice to have seven or eight or nine who can play quality tennis, that helps a lot over a long season,” Wortham said.

In singles, Fuquay swept sets Nos. 2-5 as Friendship’s Cade Bushee’s defeated Ryan Walzer (2-6, 2-6) in the No. 1 match.

No. 4 Nolan and No. 5 Curtis Brugler both won their singles matches 6-0, 6-0.

Walzer, who played as a freshman at Holly Springs last year, has been a leader for a young Patriots squad.

“Cade has been instrumental in being a great coach on the court and boosting everyone’s morale,” Friendship coach Bob Musser said. “He’s been a great team leader.”

Being able to start a program from scratch has an appealing aspect of taking the job for Musser.

“Just ninth and tenth graders I’m not concerned with wins and losses, just seeing improvement,” Musser said. “This has been a unique experience. I’ve coached at four established high schools and this a unique opportunity to put a trademark on the type of player and competition we want.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 12:12 AM with the headline "Fuquay-Varina boys tennis continues rise by beating Apex Friendship."