Last year, Cacha had a slight advantage over his opponent as Green Hope’s Jake Bowling bowed out of the semifinals in order to train for an upcoming tournament that was not school-affiliated.

This year, Bowling did it again and, as a result, Middle Creek’s Matt Stachowiak advanced into the finals. And once again, Cacha was in the final thanks to a default — this time thanks to a different Green Hope player, Taylor Elliott, who put academics before athletics and attended an after-school activity to enhance his standing in a honors class.

Both players said they had to adjust somewhat to the changes after arriving to the Cary Tennis Park prepared for a semifinal round and not a championship match.

“I knew it was going to be tough” Cacha said. “I was getting ready for that match and I was surprised he wasn’t playing.”

Cacha, the 7th-ranked sophomore in the state according to TennisRecruiting.net, made quick work of Stachowiak, defeating him in straight sets 6-0, 6-2.

Stachowiak, the 15th-best freshman in the state according to Ten nisRecruiting.net, opened the first set up 40-love but lost six straight points as Cacha took the first game.

After that, Cacha rolled, hitting winners in places and spots that couldn’t be returned.

“He played a really good match today and I played well,” Stachowiak said. “There wasn’t much else I could do, so hat’s off to him.”

Cacha, Stachowiak, Elliott, Bowling and Panther Creek’s Guy Lewis all moved on to regionals after finishing in the top five.

Finley/Ogilvie win doubles title

On the doubles side, the experienced Middle Creek tandem of Duke Finley and Eric Ogilvie ended a Cinderella-esque run from Fuquay-Varina’s Corey Peters and Bryce Riley in the Tri-Eight championship match 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

The two seniors only lost twice this year when paired up with one another, but were facing possible defeat with the match tied at 4-4 in the third set.

It’s at that point where Ogilvie said his partner took things to another level, and the results don’t lie. A previously spent Finley came alive and fired two aces, forced multiple Fuquay errors in the final two games to come away with the win.

“Duke is one of the best players in the league, period,” F-V coach Bill Brown said. “He took it upon himself in that last set and said ‘I’m not going to lose this match.’ It was a great match. They played very well.”

Peters, a junior, and Riley, a sophomore, entered the tournament unseeded (the top four are seeded) but rolled into the championship after taking down the fourth-seeded Green Hope tandem of Wang and Wickelgren 6-4, 6-2 and the second-seeded Apex pairing of Gibson Smith and Eric Fletcher 7-6 (7-4 tiebreaker), 3-6, 7-6 (7-4 tiebreaker).

Ogilvie said that the intensity that Riley and Peters brought after battling through tough matches like the one to Apex was hard to match at first.

“Our intensity wasn’t there,” Ogilvie said. “They had a lot of matches that were very close and they’re a great team that definitely deserves it here and they definitely had some closer matches than we had.”

Finley said his nerves were going throughout the entire match, but found enough composure to rid the unforced errors that plagued him and Ogilvie in the second set.

“We were really tested,” Finley said. “Especially since this is the finals, my heart was pounding probably the whole match. I was nervous.”

Brown said he was proud of how his number two doubles team competed on Wednesday, nearly doing the unthinkable and taking out the number four, two and one seeds in one of the toughest tennis conferences in the state.

“They’ve got a lot of heart,” Brown said. “A lot of doubles is chemistry and those kids get along great and they seem to instinctively know who is going to be where and they cover for each other.”

Both pairings will advance to regionals as will Apex’s Fletcher-and-Smith doubles team, Fuquay’s top doubles team of Alan Karnofsky and Garrett Riley, and Apex’s second doubles team of John Crick and Curtis Thomas.