Tigers take loss at home against Mount Vernon

Nevada's Taylor Chapman returns a serve against Mount Vernon's Brett Jones Monday, in a hard fought match he would eventually lose, 8-3.

By Chris Patch

Nevada Daily Mail

Nevada tennis played some of its better tennis at home Monday, against Mount Vernon but the result was all too familiar. The Tigers lost 2-7.

Nevada (1-5) was swept 3-0 in doubles but avoided a shutout with singles wins by Dominic Habjan and Ethan Holmes. The Tigers mostly avoided getting blown out of matches, leaving head coach Katie Doherty pleased with the effort despite what the scorecard would suggest.

"I think we were really competitive, we didn't get blown away," Doherty said. "I think the boys worked hard but we just couldn't push over that hill."

It took a final push for Habjan to win his singles match over Vernon's Dame Shmidley after falling in a 6-4 hole. Habjan found the energy to win the final four games of the match and take the first win of the afternoon for the Tigers. He said as the match lengthened, Shmidley's power started fading as he ran out of gas.

"I think I played well, he was just really big, really tall and he got to most of everything that I hit," Habjan said. "He just wore down after I hit it away from him a lot. He hit pretty hard, especially on his forehand. I tried to keep it to his backhand and away from him."

The Tigers were glad not to be worn down by the weather again, as happened Thursday against Bolivar when the wind gusted to 40 mph. Habjan said the pleasant weather conditions gave his game a noticeable boost.

"I felt better than I was last week because of the wind," Habjan said. "It's just nice to be out on a nice day. It's nice and sunny, not too hot, not too cold."

Holmes also looked comfortable during his 8-5 dismantling of Vernon's Wylie Redfearn. He led for most of the match, never exactly feeling threatened by his competition.

"It went really well," Holmes said. "I was hitting it good and everything was doing good. He was good, he wasn't that good with the placement but he definitely hit it in. I was playing really well."

Despite the good playing conditions and improved play for Nevada the result was eerily familiar. After the contest assistant coach Lex Blue joked that maybe the pleasant conditions threw off his team after a string of bad weather at matches.

"We were blinded by the light," he said.