ECC boys tennis: Rain wins at ECC championship

You can’t fault the effort put in by the coaches and volunteers to try and get the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys tennis championships in at Waterford High School on Monday, but the elements won out in the end.
The boys singles and doubles championship matches will be resumed today at 3 p.m. at Waterford. Top-seeded Brandon Roode of Griswold won the first set against No. 2 seed Andy King of East Lyme, 6-1, and was leading the second 2-1 when a second line of storms moved into the area. Stonington’s top-seeded doubles team of Dan Banker and Devin White were also enjoying a 6-4, 3-2 lead over the Waterford doubles team of John Stockman and Schuylar Whiting when play was called.
The two championship matches started two hours late thanks to a line of heavy thunderstorms that moved into Waterford area shortly before the scheduled start of 4 p.m.
Once the storms cleared, the Waterford coaching staff, players and volunteers manned the squeegees and even enlisted a leaf blower to clear the court of water and dry it.
Banker and White took a quick 3-0 lead in the doubles match which began prior to the singles competition. Stockman and Whiting, however, rallied to close within one game, 5-4, but the Bears duo was able to pick up the decisive sixth win.
Roode, the two-time defending ECC champion, won the first five games against King before the East Lyme player prevented the sweep in the first set. Roode came back to win the seventh game, but time was not on the players’ side as storm clouds began to gather.
Tournament director Chris Coderre stopped play when those clouds, which failed to produce any lightning, did let loose another torrent of rain that rendered the courts unplayable.