Demons denied NCHSAA 3-A crown by South Point in thriller

BURLINGTON — “We were right there,” said Fike High boys tennis head coach Lee Matthews, before repeating himself softly. “We were right there.”

The Golden Demons, making their first appearance in the NCHSAA 3-A dual-team championship, were indeed right there Monday morning at Burlington Tennis Center. Fike, the East Regional champion, trailed West king Belmont South Point 4-2 after singles but, behind the state 3-A doubles runner-up brother duo of senior Snyder Pearson and freshman Collins Pearson, the Demons rallied in doublesm in the state final that was moved from Saturday due to rain.

The Pearsons breezed to victory on court No. 1 for their 22nd win in 25 matches, while the No. 3 tandem of Hatten Gore-Cian Bonner had all but clinched its match with a 7-3 lead and up 40-15 in the 11th game.

On court No. 2, Fike’s Dylan Skinner-Zachary Hill was locked in a battle with Red Raiders No. 1 singles player Shive Patel and partner, No. 4 Brandon Cunningham. The Demons duo led early but trailed after having its serve broken.

Trailing 7-6, Fike was on the verge of returning the favor with a break point to save its season but couldn’t get the point. The Red Raiders took the next two and their first state championship.

Fike was left to agonize over the nearest of misses for its first boys tennis state title.

“The South Point coach was very gracious,” Matthews said. “He said he knew we were the two best teams in the state this year in 3-A and we ended up where we were supposed to. And we were right there.”

Fike had to battle back from that singles deficit that was looking like a split to Matthews early.

After dropping his first set to South Point freshman Rex Dover 6-2, Skinner rallied to win the next one 6-3 and pulled out a 10-3 third-set tiebreaker. Meanwhile, Collins Pearson, probably the best No. 6 player in the state, blitzed junior Asher Dover 6-0, 6-0 for his 20th singles win without a loss.

But Snyder Pearson was locked in a battle with state 3-A singles runner-up Shive Patel at No. 1 and would eventually succumb in three sets — 4-6, 6-4, (10-3). Sophomore Cian Bonner, however, was up 4-1 in the second set after losing the first set 6-2 to South Point’s Tyler Cunningham at No. 5.

“So I’m standing there, I’m looking at the post, going, ‘We got a chance here. If Dylan and Cian both can pull this thing off, we could slip out of here with a 3-3 split in singles,’” Matthews said. “And South Point is going to be absolutely beside themselves … because they couldn’t manufacture three wins in doubles. It was evident they had no answer for the Pearson boys at 1 and they had no answer for Cian and Hatten at 3. The point was always going to be: Could we squeeze them on 2 and Patel proved just a little bit too much for us. They kind of in a sense neutralized Brandon Cunningham, his partner. Basically, I think the coach told him to get out of it every chance you get. And he probably made equal number of errors and winners. And if you could keep him in neutral, you know, Patel could probably swing the rest of it, and he did.”

South Point, king of the 3-A Big South Conference, finished the season without a loss and 18 victories.

The Demons, three-time champions of the 3-A Quad County Conference, finished 18-2 in the greatest season of Fike boys tennis. Pearson-Pearson finished second in the state 3-A doubles tournament and the 3-A East Regional after winning the QCC title. Fike had made it past Fayetteville Terry Sanford and three-time state 3-A singles champion Drew Hedgecoe in the fourth round before downing defending 3-A champion Carrboro in the East final last week at Fike.

It was a year that began with nothing but potential considering that short of senior Snyder Pearson, who will attend University of Mount Olive to play tennis, the Demons had no stars, just a solid lineup top to bottom.

“The thing that we kept repeating was, I told them from the get-go this year, when we were talking at the beginning of the year: The team that we’ve got this year has got the potential to play for the state championship,” Matthews said.

Matthews said the South Point head coach told Demons assistant coach Greg Adkins at the state 3-A individual tournament that Fike had “been on his radar” from the beginning of the season and he expected to see them at the dual-team final in Burlington.

“So, we’ve accomplished history and getting there, but we’ve got the 3-A coaches in the state paying attention to it now and paying attention to us,” said Matthews.

It was the final match for seniors Snyder Pearson, Gore and Skinner, who helped take Fike tennis, which has a rich history, to new heights along with senior twin sisters Caroline and Kathryn Adkins, who were state 3-A doubles champions as juniors and runners-up last fall.

Matthews gave high praise to Snyder Pearson, who finished 16-5 in singles and 22-3 in doubles this spring, after helping Fike reach the regional final in dual-team in 2023 and the state championship match this year.

“I’ve coached No. 1 players that were more talented than Snyder — Whittaker Askew and Nick James, just to name a couple — but nobody has worked harder at it for four years than Snyder Pearson,” the veteran Fike coach said. He’s gone after it. He’s going after it, with the exception of when he was in season with soccer, he’s played as much tennis as anyone. You put him right in there with Caroline and Kathryn.

“But they worked harder as a group. They worked at it from the time they got there as ninth graders to now and I had the feeling when they got together four years ago, in that COVID year, and I started to see what those three freshmen could do.

I had a feeling they were going to change the face of the program — and they’ve done exactly that. You know, back-to-back with East regional runner-up last year and state runner up this year. Done everything but grab the ring.”

SOUTH POINT 5, FIKE 3

Shive Patel (SP) def. Snyder Pearson 4-6, 6-4, (10-3); James Dover (SP) def. Hatten Gore 6-0, 6-2; Dylan Skinner (F) def. Rex Dover 2-6, 6-3, (10-3); Brandon Cunningham (SP) def. Zachary Hill 6-3, 6-1; Tyler Cunningham (SP) def. Cian Bonner 6-2, 7-6(2); Collins Pearson (F) def. Asher Dover 6-0, 6-0.

Pearson-Pearson (F) def. J. Dover-R. Dover 8-3; Patel-B. Cunningham (SP) def. Skinner-Hill 8-6.

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