Justin Radloff remembers being the wide-eyed freshman on the Cary High tennis team, the young whippersnapper set to play No. 1 singles, his eye on dismantling the conference power structure at that position.

While many have conjured that notion, few have succeeded like Radloff. Over the next two years, he went 23-1 in conference, won the league tournament’s singles title twice and was the conference player of the year both seasons.

Now a senior, Radloff knew this year’s batch of up-and-comers were ready to take their last shot at dethroning him. He’s taken everyone’s best shot and was only once knocked down. He’s intent on turning that one loss into the catalyst for a postseason run, which begins with the Tri-Eight tournament on Tuesday at Cary Tennis Center.

“I thought I was putting a little too much pressure on myself,” Radloff said of his three-set loss to Green Hope’s Jake Bowling on April 15. “To know if I had won that, then no one else could have tied me, probably. Today, it doesn’t really matter. Just go out and have fun and play.”

Last week, Radloff had to play Bowling on Tuesday and Apex’s Wesley Barrett two days later, among the toughest back-to-back matches anyone in the Tri-Eight faced all season.

Bowling, who lost the first meeting with Radloff, prevailed 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 this time around. It was just the third time in Radloff’s career he lost a conference match.

The player waiting for him on Thursday — Apex’s Barrett — is the only other player active in the Tri-Eight who can say he too has beaten Radloff.

“Justin could have caved in because he goes from one tough opponent to another tough opponent,” Cary coach Andy Zappia said. “Last time [against Barrett] it was very, very close. Instead, he turned it to his advantage and said, ‘I’m not going to let this beat me.’ He really responded to the pressure well.”

Radloff played the role of aggressor for the majority of the match. He moved Barrett around throughout, drawing him to the net with a soft drop shot, then shooting a lob over his head to send him scurrying to the baseline on a handful of points. By dictating the action, Radloff was able to remain on the baseline as he pleased and survey the court, looking for the slightest hole to exploit.

He jumped out to 3-0 leads in both sets. Barrett cut it to 3-2 both times, but Radloff closed each set winning the final three games to win 6-2, 6-2.

Radloff figures to be one of the top two seeds in the Tri-Eight singles draw, and he’ll be trying to win that title for the third time. He won it as a freshman and sophomore but lost to Barrett in the semifinals last year.

His path, however, will not feature Barrett, the reigning champ. Apex coach Ryan Phelps said Barrett and Viking Edeback will likely enter the doubles draw.

But that doesn’t mean the singles bracket is any easier.

“This year, not only with kids like Wesley coming back, you’ve got Roman [Cacha] at Athens and Jake at Green Hope. The quality of No. 1 players in this conference has come up so much from [Radloff’s] freshman year,” Zappia said. “You don’t get any days off. You get a bunch of really good players who say, “I’m going to get this kid.’ And they go after him. The pressure is so much more this year anyway, and he knows it.”

If Radloff and Bowling finish with identical 13-1 records, the No. 1 seed could come down to a coin flip. And the vote for conference player of the year, which Radloff has won three times, figures to be painfully close, too.

And Radloff knows it. Of course he wants to be a four-time player of the year, but he has an attitude toward those prospects that belies his maturation from the young gun to the old guard of the Tri-Eight.

“Everything is icing on the cake from now on. I think I’ve done pretty well,” he said. “It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t happen.”