LUMBERTON — The two seniors on the Lumberton boys tennis team that play as the top doubles team and the top two singles slots — Dominic Dent and Alex Wober — put their pride aside on Thursday at home.

The pair picked up singles wins over Purnell Swett during the Pirates’ 6-3 Southeastern Conference win over their in-county foe. But instead of assuming the role of the No. 1 doubles pair, they sat out to give match time to some of the younger players, showing their selflessness as their leadership has helped catapulted Lumberton to second in the SEC.

“Our two seniors are really spearheading everything,” Lumberton coach Jeff Kinlaw said. “We’re playing well and everyone is working hard in practice, even with the high numbers we have.”

Dent won his match over Purnell Swett’s Cameron Richardson 6-2, 6-2, and Wober topped Bailey Dial 6-4, 7-5. Wober is 7-1 on the year in singles play and Dent is 6-2 for Lumberton (6-2, 4-1 SEC). Combined in doubles play they are 5-0, but with over half the roster consisting of freshman, and the match in hand after singles play with Lumberton up 5-1, they took the backset to give the courts over to their younger teammates.

“They were the guys a while ago that said, ‘Coach, we got the win and we don’t want to play. Let’s let some other guys play,’” Kinlaw said. “Yeah it would be a great win for them as a doubles team, but they also want to see the program grow with the guys we have.”

Other singles win for the Pirates came from Josh Britt with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Jydor Locklear, John Floyd with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-6 overtime victory over Adam Lowery and Jack Cherichella with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Jaron Cummings.

Purnell Swett’s (1-3, 1-3 SEC) Shawn Gingras topped Cole Lewis for Lewis’ first single loss of the year, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.

Gingras, along with Richardson and Dial are three players that Purnell Swett coach Jeremy Sampson has been impressed with so far this season.

“A lot of these guys were first year players last year and now they’ve got one year’s worth of experience and you can see the confidence,” Sampson said. “The guys are exceeding my expectations. We’re playing hard and they have a lot of enthusiasm, which is always good.”

The Rams controlled doubles play with two of the three matches. Richardson and Dial topped Lumberton’s Lewis and Britt 9-8 (8-6) in No. 1 doubles. Locklear and Lowery won 8-5 in No. 2 doubles over Cherichella and William Davis.

Zach Cox and Connor Kinlaw won 8-2 over Seth White and Gurney White in Lumberton’s lone doubles win.

After one time through playing the other five SEC teams, the next cycle through has a major focus on getting the best of conference-leading Pinecrest, who Lumberton lost to 5-4. The two will play on Wednesday in Lumberton.

“We hope next Wednesday when they come here to give them a battle,” Kinlaw said.

Jonathan Bym | The Robesonian
Lumberton’s Alex Wober returns a shot in his singles match against Purnell Swett’s Bailey Dial. Wober won his singles match in straight sets and the Pirates won the match 6-3.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Wober201732321522486.jpgJonathan Bym | The Robesonian
Lumberton’s Alex Wober returns a shot in his singles match against Purnell Swett’s Bailey Dial. Wober won his singles match in straight sets and the Pirates won the match 6-3.

By Jonathan Bym

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Jonathan Bym can be reached at 910-816-1977. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathan_Bym.