Tigers play Tigers in tennis

Nevada tennis player Wesley Coffer serves to his Fort Scott opponent during Fridays tennis meet at Nevada.

Herald-Tribune

No team at Nevada High School needed a win more than the 0-3 Tigers tennis team.

Nevada entered Friday's match with cross-state rival Fort Scott having been blown out of its three previous matches and left without much to hang its hat on. Finally, the tide turned for Nevada. It beat Fort Scott 5-4 Friday afternoon at the Nevada High tennis courts.

The meet looked different from the beginning when Nevada hung tough on the singles side. The home team split the matches 3-3 and could have won four had it not been for a James Smith's heart-breaking tie-break loss to Fort Scott's Josh Grant. Nevertheless, Nevada went on to take two of the three doubles matches to win the meet.

"I think we could have played better, honestly," head coach Katie Doherty said. "But I think they did a great job. It was tough, it was close."

Nevada waited for doubles to play its most dominating tennis. Its No. 1 team of Taylor Chapman and Dominic Hadjan kicked off the afternoon by dispatching Fort Scott's Dustin Willard and Josh Grant 8-2. The match was subsequently put away when James Smith and Ethan Holmes took out Fort Scott's Gabe Quick and Colton Grillot 8-4.

"I think my number two doubles, they're awesome together," Doherty said. "They were made to play with each other, I feel like."

The most efficient win of the meet went to Chapman, who showed Dustin Willard the door early in the afternoon with an 8-1 win in the No. 1 singles match. Chapman played the shortest match of the meet and despite the lopsided win, he came away feeling he could have played better.

"I played all right, Chapman said. "I didn't think I played to the best of my ability though. My serve, I'm not getting my top side enough. I thought I was hitting my backhands real good."

The antithesis of Chapman's contest was Smith's No. 2 singles match against Fort Scott's Josh Grant. Smith was vocal during most of the seesaw battle that ended with a tie breaker, somewhere he didn't seem to want to go. Smith managed to take the early lead in the tie break before emotion and frustration got the best of his game.

"I was kind of disappointed but it was still pretty good," Smith said. "I didn't do as well as I could have. I kept getting frustrated with myself and it's just something I need to work on for the next match ... I just kept getting mad because I kept hitting it into the net."

Nevada's Will Andrews-Weiss also went into a tie break with Fort Scott's Jimmy Cox. Andrews-Weiss has been a good story for Nevada; he was the only player to win a game April 1 against Thomas Jefferson High School in his first meet of the season. He won his first match in his second try Friday in a tie break over Fort Scott's Jimmy Cox, 9-8 (8-6).

The mood was different at Nevada High School following the win. Instead of lasting a little over an hour, the competitive tennis dragged on into the twilight. As Doherty watched the last doubles match wrap up she summed up the collective emotion, "It feels good for a change."