Panther boys tennis season comes to a close

The Panthers boys tennis team has concluded its season after competing last week in the singles and doubles district tournament and the substate first round.

KNOXVILLE — On Wednesday, the Panthers competed in Knoxville in the district tournament.

“Today was a good day for our boy’s team,” coach Kevin Cooper said. “We are still a relatively young and inexperienced team, so for many of the boys, this is their first time playing in this tournament. It was nice for each group to go out and get a win.”

In No. 1 singles, senior Spencer Brown defeated Easton Brokaw of Clarke in two sets, 6-1 and 7-5, before falling to Pella Christian’s Jonathon VanGorp in two sets.

In No. 2 singles, junior Wyatt Hitz won his first match 2-0 with both set wins of 6-4. He defeated Knoxville’s Price McDanel. In round two, Hitz was swept 6-0, 6-0 by Charlie LeGrand of Xavier.

Both doubles teams won their first matches before being shut out in round two.

The No. 1 doubles team of Wesley Wires and Tim Barnett beat Lincoln Clark and Asic Hurley of Centerville 6-3, 6-1 in the first round. They lost to the Xavier team in round two.

The No. 2 doubles team of Carson Beer and Dylan Dornack posted two 6-1 set wins over Evan Wickersheim and Gavin Pease of Centerville before being shut out by the team from Xavier.

CARROLL — Saturday, the team competed in a dual with Kuemper Catholic in the first round of Substate 3 play.

The dual is stopped if either team reaches five points, and in this case, Kuemper scored five unanswered in singles to win the dual and advance.

“Today was a tough match for our team; Carroll is a very good and well-coached team,” Cooper said. “They will play to become a state qualifier Saturday against Ballard.”

Brown and Wires were both swept 6-0, 6-0 by their opponents in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches.

At No. 3, Bartlett was able to put up one point in set one against Carter Running, but was shut out in the second set.

Beer was shut out in set one by Landon Pottebaum but was able to score a point in set two.

The last bout to finish was No. 5 singles where Dornack was taken down 6-1, 6-0 by Luke Schulte.

“While it is tough to have our season over with, our kids have improved a lot from day one, and that is all we can ask of them,” Cooper said. “They will find their experience from this year helpful to them in next year’s season.”