By JEREMY SHORT
TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — The Tahlequah boys’ tennis team had its best performance of the season Tuesday as they finished ninth in a field full of 6A teams at the Owasso Invitational.
The Tigers were one of just three teams in classes lower than 6A at the invitational.
“It was an outstanding performance,” said Tigers coach Tyler Ashley. “It was the best so far. We’re finally starting to turn the corner. The hard work and dedication is starting to pay off.”
In No.1 singles, Seth French went 3-1 to finish fifth place overall. He cruised past his first opponent, Dalton Derry of Bartlesville, 6-3, 6-1. French then lost his second match to Casey Discaso from Edmond North 0-6, 0-6.
After the loss, he rebounded nicely with two straight wins by super tiebreaker against Austin Strickland of Broken Arrow and David Westfall of Claremore to finish fifth.
The Tigers No.2 singles player, Brayden Young, took nearly the same path on his way to fifth place. Young beat Chase Blair of Owasso in his first match 6-0, 6-0, then lost to Edmond North’s Nick Jordan 1-6, 1-6. In his final two matches he beat Nic Nord of Stillwater 6-4, 6-2 and edged Charley Ross of Edmond Memorial 6-7, 7-5, 10-3 (super tiebreaker) for fifth place.
Tahlequah’s doubles teams each went 2-2 in their brackets.
The No.1 doubles team of Nicky Halpern and Derrick Young lost their first two matches to Edmond North and Edmond Memorial, but rebounded and beat Bartlesville and Sand Springs in the final two matches to finish thirteenth.
Alex Cousins and Spencer Risenhoover also went 2-2 in No.2 doubles, but finished tenth. The duo fell to Claremore in their first match, but responded with back-to-back wins against Owasso and West Moore.
In the consolation finals, Edmond Memorial beat the pair 2-6, 2-6.
Tahlequah’s next action is Saturday when they host the Tahlequah Quad.
Matches will start at 9:30 a.m. and will be played at Northeastern State and Tahlequah High School courts.
“I’m excited with the way things are going,” said Ashley.
