The Crawfordsville boys’ tennis team secured a county and conference win over North Montgomery 4-1 on Monday night.
Crawfordsville blanked the Chargers at all three singles positions, winning every game.
“It’s definitely good to be back in the win column,” Crawfordsville coach Craig Brainard said. “It’s good to win a county match and a conference match. They (singles) did really great at the Lafayette Jeff tournament (Saturday) despite not getting a lot of wins, it was just a lot of mental wins and I really think I saw some of that breakthrough that we’ve been looking for.”
Austin Motz beat Alex Chapman 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles, while Thatcher Gambrel defeated Hunter Kashon 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 2 positon and James Murphy beat Haze Kashon 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
North Montgomery played its best tennis at the doubles’ positions, including a win by Brookes Walters and Owen Utterback 6-1, 6-1 over Thomas Bowling and James Bowling at No. 2 doubles.
“Overall we played better today,” first-year Charger coach Rick Holtz said. “Doubles guys, even at 1 doubles where we lost, we still played better. At 2 doubles we were able to control the pace of the game. Got ahead early and we were able to play ahead and that’s where we excel, where we aren’t trying to dig our way out of anything.”
Crawfordsville duo Ziair Morgan and Zack Fichter beat Will McKinnis and Hayden Turner 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles.
“Our doubles stepped it up,” Brainard said. “And actually our 1 doubles team was the best I’ve seen them play together as a team.”
Holtz hopes to see a bigger sense of urgency once they fall behind in future matches for the Chargers.
“The big thing is if your opponent hits a great shot, tip your hat on move on,” he said. “Our guys need to not make unforced errors. Our guys when they fall behind they get down on themselves and it compounds.”
Crawfordsville travels to Danville, while North Montgomery host Frankfort this afternoon.
