The Montezuma-Cortez High School Panthers boys tennis team won six of their seven individual matches against the visiting 3A Cedaredge Bruins last Friday evening.
A large gathering of family and friends from both schools watched very competitive matches in singles and doubles at the Jim Harkendorff Tennis Courts. With the 6-1 win, M-CHS moves to 1-1 in matches on the season.
Graham Cathey and Logan Dean continued their success with straight set victories at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Ford Wegner was a little nervous at the beginning of the No. 3 singles match, but found confidence and accuracy in time to beat Ryan Bowen, 6-4, 6-2.
Ford has the makings of a strong player in the near future, M-CHS coach Dan Wood said.
Captain Jake Valdez and Todd Underwood won easily at No. 1 doubles, 6-1, 6-0.
These are the two tallest players on our team. When they put their minds together, they dominate opponents with serves and net play, Wood said. Im expecting exciting action from them all year.
The best match of day was at No. 2 doubles, according to coach Wood. Si Eckhart and Cody Canzona were nervous and lost the first set to Bruins teammates Garrett Peterson and Peter Plonka, 4-6. Then later, all the other players and crowd came to watch this last match. Eckhart and Canzona put on a show and won five games in row to win the second set and send the match to the tiebreaker playoff. The fans went wild watching the Panthers take a 9-5 lead in the 10-point playoff.
However, the Bruins started playing well and clawed back to win the set, 11-9, clinching the No. 2s match.
The fans applauded both teams for their excellent play, while the players shook hands at the net.
Wyatt Yates and Xavier Eddy at No. 3 doubles, and Grant Gasaway, Tyler Daniel and Jace Miller at No. 4 doubles also recorded victories for M-CHS.
The Panthers now have an 8-6 record for individual matches this year.
M-CHS will travel to Delta on Friday afternoon for two matches. The Panthers take on Hotchkiss at 1 p.m., and then face Cedaredge in a rematch at 4.