Andy Moehlich completed a two-set sweep at No. 3 singles to clinch a 3-2 Class 6A state playoff victory for the Lakeside Vikings over the Wheeler Wildcats at DeKalb Tennis Center on Thursday afternoon.

Lakeside had jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a sweep of the two doubles matches that brought Moehlich on to the court against Wheeler’s Swarat Kulkarni in what would be the deciding match of the day.

Wheeler rallied to tie the match at 2-2 with a win at No. 1 singles by Kile Ha over Lakeside’s Sam Fournier and Joe Thottungal’s rally from a first set loss to Lakeside’s Luca Borisov to win a three-set thriller 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Moehlich took a 2-1 lead by breaking Kulkarni’s server in the third game of the set and never trailed again.

He won his next service game and broke his opponents for the second time to go up 4-1 in the opening set. It would start of string of five consecutive service breaks by the pair with Moehlich getting the final break to win the first set 6-3.

Moehlich held serve in his first two games of the second set while breaking Kulkarni twice more to jump to a 4-0 lead in the second set. Kulkarni got a break back on Moehlich’s next service game to make it a 4-1 difference.

Lakeside’s No. 3 singles player answered by breaking Kulkarni again and then serving for the win to send the Vikings into the third round of the playoffs.

Julian Santucci and Wynnton Martin picked up the first win of the match for Lakeside knocking off the Wheeler duo of Phillip Phanthourath and Noah Sheikh 6-0, 6-3 to open things up at No. 1 doubles.

Jay and Shaan Jani made it 2-0 in favor of the Vikings with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Wheeler’s George Dixon and Rohit Gogineni at No. 2 doubles.

Lakeside advances to the third round and faces the Cambridge/Houston County winner next week with the time, date and place to be announced.

DCSD TENNIS STATE PLAYOFFS RESULTS
Thursday, 4/21
CLASS 6A BOYS SECOND ROUND
DEKALB TENNIS CENTER
Lakeside (15-2) 3, Wheeler 2

DCSD TENNIS STATE PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
Friday, April 22
CLASS 5A GIRLS SECOND ROUND
Chamblee (13-6-1) at Woodward Academy, 10:00 am
CLASS 5A BOYS SECOND ROUND
Chamblee (12-8) at Woodward Academy, 10:00 am

Monday, April 25
CLASS 6A GIRLS SECOND ROUND
Lakeside (10-6) at Pope, 4:30 pm

MATCHES TBA
CLASS 7A BOYS SECOND ROUND
North Paulding at Dunwoody (12-3), TBA
CLASS 7A GIRLS SECOND ROUND
Camden County at Dunwoody (14-4), TBA

CLASS 6A BOYS THIRD ROUND
Lakeside (15-2) vs. Cambridge/Houston Co. winner, TBA