Sep. 18—The Western Boone tennis team lost a tough 3-2 match on Monday night.
Playing again a day later, they made sure they were on the other side of things the second time around.
Western Boone gutted out a 3-2 win over Rossville on Tuesday, improving to 8-6 on the year.
“The things that didn’t happen yesterday, happened today,” Western Boone head coach Dustin Cunningham said. “We had guys fight through adversity in the clutch and pull it out.”
The win showed the growth the Stars have made throughout the season.
WeBo dropped the first set in four of the five spots, and could have easily crumbled. But they didn’t.
“Throughout our line-up it’s ‘you don’t give up, you don’t give in,'” Cunningham said. “Earlier in the year, we had some spots where that might happen. We have our tournament this weekend, three matches next week against quality opponents and hopefully this gets us started on something good heading into sectionals.”
That mindset was evident in several spots for the Stars.
In singles play, Gavin Hawkins won 6-3, 7-6 over Roman St. Myer at No. 1 singles. Jon Rutherford won 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 over Zac Wainscott at No. 2 singles, and Jacob Collins lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 at No. 3 singles to Brody Skinner.
“Gavin was down 5-4 in the second set, got up 6-5 and then won it in a tiebreaker,” Cunningham said. “Jon was down 0-3 in the second set and then came back to get the win and really clinched it. Even though we lost at three singles, we battled back and got good experience. It was good for them to have those tight matches.”
The Stars also showed some resiliency in doubles play.
Easton Nance and Owen Oakley dropped the first set 6-1 to Ryan Clendenen and Ashton Abbott, before winning the final two 7-5, 7-5.
“They got it taken to them a little in the first set against two good opponents,” Cunningham said. “They came out a little flat and took that first punch in the mouth and then battled back. It is a good win for their confidence.”
At No. 2 doubles, Eli Mitchell and Burke Cavins fell to Levi Darnel and Eli Barnes 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).
The Stars have their rescheduled tournament Saturday before finishing up the regular season with three matches in four days.
Cunningham said the Stars want to make the most of their practice time the rest of this week.
“We have a couple of days before our tournament which will give us a chance to do some technical work that we didn’t have a chance to do for a while,” he said.
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
