In recent matches against Calloway County and McCracken County, the Marshall County Tennis Team won 4 of 18 against the Lakers and were shut out by the always tough Mustang team.
Elizabeth Padgett won her match 9-8 (7-4 tie-breaker) over Calloway’s Lily Swain, B.J. Waggoner beat Mallory Hlava 8-3 and the doubles team of Padgett and Nikki Fehrenbacher won 8-6 over Swain and Lauren Wagner.
Fehrenbacher was competitive in her match against Lauren Wagner, losing 8-5 and Courtney Phillips lost 8-5 to Calloway’s Hannah Anderson.
“This was out first match after Spring Break and you could definitely tell we were rusty”, Head Coach Tyler Brockman said. “You have to give credit to Calloway’s players for playing well though. I was proud of B.J. for her win in singles and Elizabeth played well again.”
Hayden Jaco posted the only win for the boy’s team over Calloway in his 8-2 win over Jason Marquardt. All the boys won games in their matches and the doubles team of Alex Chapman and Kaleb Willie came closest, losing 8-6 to Jaewon Kang and Marquardt.
“This was a tough match for our guys”, Brockman said. “I don’t think we came out ready to play and Calloway got up on us in some matches and we weren’t able to make a comeback. I switched the lineup around a little and it might have backfired on us a little bit. Hayden played very well in his singles match which was nice to see.”
Two days later, the Marshall team took on the powerful McCracken County team. Abbey Harrington won a couple of games in her match, Padgett and Allie Fiske took two games in their doubles match and Briana Phelps and Padgett each won one game against their opponent.
“Our girls played hard today but sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team”, Brockman said. “We were missing a few of our top players, but McCracken is a great team and it was eye-opening for our girls to see the level at which their team plays. Hopefully our girls can learn from their matches and improve the rest of the season.”
In boys matches, the doubles team of Charlie Reid and Tucker Lovett posted the best match of the day, taking 5 games from Ben Higdon and Ty Crabtree in their 8-5 loss. Dalton Riley lost 8-3 to Jordan Windhorst while only one Marshall player was completely shut out in the 9 matches.
“I think our kids played with great effort today”, Brockman said. “Sometimes when you step up in competition level it brings your game up to another level as well. Our doubles teams competed well today and I was really proud of Charlie and Tucker for their match. We still have some work to do in our singles matches but we are getting better.”
Thursday’s match at home against Mayfield was cancelled due to weather. The team will play at home on Monday against St. Mary.