North Surry’s Tyler Davis wasn’t supposed to win his first-round match. He wasn’t supposed to win the second-round contest either. After a day of upsets, Davis might be the most feared man in the Mountain Valley 2A conference tennis tournament, which concludes today beginning at 1 p.m. at Wilkes Central.

Davis upset the third overall seed, Surry Central’s Kyle Eiswald, with an 8-6 victory to start the day. In the second round, Davis rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the second set to defeat Wilkes Central’s Greg Herring, 6-3.

Davis’ big day earned him a season’s worth of accolades. He earned all-conference honors, qualified for the regional tournament and advanced to today’s semifinals.

In other singles action, Austin Warren of the Greyhounds was beaten by Zach Matthews of Forbush, 8-6.

In doubles, the Golden Eagles tandem of Jake Dellinger and Nick Gillespie outlasted Dylan O’Neal and Nick Morgan of North Surry , 9-7. The Greyhounds’ duo trailed by counts of 4-1 and 6-3 and the score was tied at 7-all before Dellinger and Gillespie gutted out the final two points.

North Surry’s C.J. Hunter and Brandon Orndorff, a solid pair all season long, avenged last Friday’s loss to Zeb Richardson and Justin Miller of Ashe County with a 8-6 victory. The Greyhounds twosome built a 5-2 lead before fending off their opponents down the stretch. Hunter and Orndorff fell in the second round, however, to a North Wilkes tandem. Hunter and Orndorff will play in today’s consolation bracket and try to qualify for regionals from there.

Bad news for Bears



The Mount Airy girls soccer team fell South Stokes Monday after a tough call went against the Granite Bears (5-6, 3-5 Northwest 1A)

With the score deadlocked at 0-0 with 20 minutes remaining in the game, South Stokes was awarded a penalty kick after Mount Airy’s Megan Bowman was called for tripping. That’s not the way Mount Airy coach Andrew Howard saw it.

“From where I was, it looked like (the South Stokes player) missed the ball and her follow-through hit one of our girls,” Howard said. “That’s how it goes sometimes.”

The resulting penalty kick scored the lone goal of the game.

A good game turned into a hard-to-swallow loss for Mount Airy, something the Granite Bears have suffered from frequently this season.

“Overall we’re happy with how we played,” Howard said. “I think South Stokes is second in the conference right now, so to hang with them the whole game...You can only have so many moral victories. You need real victories.”

The Granite Bears return to the field Thursday when they travel to West Wilkes for a 6:30 p.m. clash.