Trinity Lutheran’s boys tennis team dropped a home match 4-1 against South Central High School on Tuesday evening at home.
The Rebels defeated the Cougars (0-4) in all the matches except for No. 2 doubles, where Pierce McCammon and Aden Jones defeated South Central’s Will Weber and Bryce Lewis in a tiebreaker.
The pair dropped the first set 6-4 but won the second set 6-0 and a tiebreaker for the third set 10-8 for the win.
The match was Jones’ first at the varsity level. Cougars coach Danny Frastaci said Jones did well in his first varsity start for the team.
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“He played really well for us,” he said. “He had some good volleys up close to the net. I think they played smart,” he said, adding the pair served the ball well. “They really had great volleys and served the ball well. It shows.”
Fastaci said he had been looking to find out who would play at No. 2 doubles since the beginning of the season and said the match was a step in the right direction for that area of the team.
“We had really struggled at two doubles to find a good mix in there,” he said. “This is our first win at No. 2 doubles tonight, so I like that.”
The Cougars’ Bailey Baker dropped his match 6-0, 6-1 to South Central’s Austin Schoen at No. 1 singles.
Trinity’s Jonathan Keith battled at No. 2 singles with Daniel Fischer but lost his match 6-4, 6-2.
Frastaci said Keith has been battling over the course of the season but wasn’t able to secure a win.
“He’s been playing hard all year and his matches have been relatively close,” Frastaci said. “It’s a good match for him, just a tough loss. Sometimes you just need to move your feet a little bit more.
Jace Crockett lost his match at No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-1 to the Rebels’ Camden Reed.
The match was the first time Crockett had ever played a singles match, Frastaci said.
The Cougars’ Matt Stuckwisch and Hunter Morgan dropped their match 6-4, 6-2 to the Rebels’ Brady Kochenbrood and Chase Schoen.
Overall, Frastaci said he didn’t think the team played to the level that it could have.
“We did not play well tonight,” he said. “We’re not getting our serves in. When you’re nervous, you don’t throw the ball as high as you need to during a serve. We lose that confidence if we miss some of those serves.”
Frastaci said the team needs to continue to work on fundamentals to get ready for the rest of the season.
“We need to work on getting our shots in consistently,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing for us where we hit the ball out and you can’t hit the ball out.”