Tiger tennis bounces back

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

By Chris Patch

Nevada Daily Mail

Nevada tennis brushed off a tough weekend and won its second match of the season 6-3 over Carthage Tuesday afternoon at Nevada High School.

The Tigers got off on the right foot in singles, winning 4-3 to put themselves in the driver's seat for doubles, which was played second on Tuesday. Dominic Habjan set the tone with an 8-2 blowout win over Carthage's Tim Dannels in No. 4 singles.

"I was playing pretty well in singles," Habjan said. "The other kid was having trouble getting his first serves in, so I just kind of picked him apart with his second serve."

Nevada's Taylor Chapman won his No. 1 singles match over Curtis Westbay 8-6 and got support from wins by Chris Claypool and Will Andrews-Weiss on the way to the Tigers winning singles. Ethan Holmes and James Smith took the two singles losses for Nevada in No's 2 and 3 but atoned for it by winning the No. 2 doubles match.

The duo went down 1-5 to Carthage's Allen Yarbrough and Tim Dannels before storming back to give Nevada the match it needed to win the meet.

"I guess we played pretty good in the doubles," Smith said. "5-1, when we were losing, we like 'heck, we're losing this bad, we might as well start playing harder.'"

Smith and Holmes won seven of the next eight games to take an 8-6 victory, and the Tigers' second win this season. The match stuck out to head coach Katie Doherty as one of Nevada's better performances.

"I think we were pretty evenly matched today, but I was really proud of my No. 2 doubles for coming back from 1-5," Doherty said.

Smith wasn't even supposed to play Tuesday on account of an injured elbow that was expected to sideline him for weeks. Despite the prognosis, Smith showed up ready to play and helped nudge the Tigers over the top to get the win.

"I was supposed to sit out for about two to three weeks because I have a pretty bad elbow," Smith said. "Last Friday was supposed to be my last match and I came today and they said that I could play, so I played."

After the match Doherty said the Tigers put forth its strongest performance despite an injury to her No. 2 singles player.

"I thought my boys played better than they have all year," she said. "I think overall, as a team, we played stronger today."

Nevada halted a losing streak dating back to April 10 and has just three meets left on the schedule. The Tigers take part in the Monett Invitational Friday, April 25 before their final home match May 1 against Clinton, followed by a trip to Webb City on May 5.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: