VEEDERSBURG — Fountain Central boys tennis might be young, but they don’t back down from any challenge. Already having a nail-biting 3-2 win under their belt in their season opener against Crawfordsville, the Mustangs welcomed Southmont to Veedersburg on Monday. The action would be hard fought all night long between FC and the Mounties as the teams were tied at 2-2 and it came down to two singles between senior Luke Tesmer for the Mounties and sophomore Gabe McCollum for FC. The two would need a winner take all third and final set to determine a winner and in the end it was McCollum who would prevail 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to seal the 3-2 Mustang win.
“Not only did Gabe lose the first set, but so did our one doubles who came back and won in three,” Mustang coach Chris Webb said. “The fact that they were able to do that I think really points to the heart of both of those spots. Those guys simply didn’t quit. They both got off to good starts in their second sets and used that momentum to carry them in the third.”
The other two wins for the Mustangs came at one doubles (as Webb noted) and two doubles. Brayden Prickett and Koby Wolf defeated Chayce Howell and Mason Hall 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 while the duo of Wes Jackson and Lukas Miller earned a 7-5, 6-3 win over Caden Jones and Gavin Downey.
The two wins for the Mounties came at one and three singles as Adam Cox defeated Ethan Mellady 6-0, 6-0 and Harrison Haddock took care of Noah Armstrong 6-1, 6-4 respectively.
“FC is athletic and I knew they would play hard coming in,” Southmont coach Nathan Poynter said. “Unfortunately for us right now we have a lot of seniors who think they are just going to have everything handed to them instead of working for it. Nothing in this sport is given to you. We still have some issues with our doubles and we shouldn’t have. We’ll see what this does for them; whether it wakes them up a little bit or we go in the opposite direction.”
For McCollum specifically, Webb noted how level-headed and straight forward his style of play is only just in his sophomore season. No matter the opponent Webb knows what he’ll get from his No. 2 singes player.
“Gabe only knows one thing and that’s to get the ball back,” Webb said. “That’s his game. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing a senior, freshman or even someone who is undefeated on the year, he always plays the same way. He’s going to run down every ball and do everything he can to keep it in play and that style I think it plays well when he’s playing someone who has more experience and it paid off tonight.”
With the loss the Mounties drop their second straight game and fall to 1-2 on the season. Despite some early season struggles, Poynter is confident that his senior-led team will turn things around.
“I’m fairly confident in the guys we got playing all of our singles spots,” he said. “One doubles will begin to flip things around. They haven’t played a ton together so they’re still working through some things. The best part is we still have plenty of time to do some things and change some things. Last year this rough patch hit the last couple weeks of the season. We know since we 5-0’d every single team in conference last year that they’re going to come after us.”
The Mounties will begin Sagamore Conference play on Tuesday as they travel to Western Boone.
With the win, FC improves to 3-0 on the season. They will also have a quick turnaround as they will travel to take on North Montgomery on Tuesday.
