CARY - Venerable Apex boys tennis coach Steve Spivey consistently reminds his players that tennis is an individual sport played as a team game at the high school level.

On Monday afternoon in a dual match against defending Tri-Nine Conference champion Green Hope, his Cougars put on a textbook example as Apex avenged an earlier loss to the Falcons with a 5-4 win at Annie Jones Park.

Apex’s five team points were spread out among five players in doubles and singles. The nearly three-hour dual meet wasn’t clinched until Apex won the final two team points at No. 3 and No. 4 singles to overcome a 4-3 deficit.

“Everyone contributed something,” said Spivey, the long-time Broughton coach who had retired until he was asked to fill in this year while Ryan Phelps took a year off from coaching. “They call this an individual sport, but in high school you really do get a sense of a team sport. I’m really proud of the way our guys played.”

Green Hope (14-2 overall, 14-1 Tri-Nine), which won the first conference meeting 6-3, and Apex (13-2, 13-1) are tied in the loss column. Green Hope has one conference match remaining and Apex two. If they finish tied, Spivey and Green Hope coach Brian McDougall said a match for the No. 1 tournament seed will be played the first week of May.

The team tennis aspect was evident when a roar from Apex’s players and fans went up as junior Shivam Desai closed out his match at No. 3 singles to tie the team score at 4-4. Desai rallied from a 4-6 loss in the first set to take the second set 6-1 and then win the decisive third set played as a tiebreaker, 11-9.

About 10 minutes later on the adjoining court, another Apex roar went up as senior Curtis Thomas recorded the decisive fifth team point with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 win at No. 4 singles.

Then the Apex players quickly gathered on the court for a team photo.

“I knew I had to grind it out because they’ve beaten us every time since my freshman year,” said Thomas, referring to 2008. “The match was close and I knew I had to win if we were going to beat Green Hope.”

In boys team tennis, the doubles matches are played first and Apex took a 2-1 lead when senior Gibson Smith and senior Eric Fletcher combined for a 9-7 win at No. 1 doubles and Desai and Thomas combined for an 8-5 win at No. 2 doubles.

In singles, sophomore Will Ostrom won his No. 6 match 6-4, 6-2 for a temporary 3-1 lead before Green Hope won the next three singles matches.

Green Hope’s singles wins came from sophomore Matt Hammond at No. 1, 6-2, 6-2; sophomore Kyle Burns at No. 2, 6-2, 6-0; and sophomore Mark Wickelgren at No. 5, 6-4, 6-1. The Falcons’ lone doubles win at No. 3 came from junior Stevie Wang and senior Jack Jin, 8-6.

Jin was the only senior in Green Hope’s young lineup under McDougall, who is a first-year coach.

“I’m really happy with our season,” McDougall said. “We’re a young team, but these kids have worked hard. Apex is a good team that really played well.”