Waynesville Tennis took another win tonight over Salem, 6-3.  Starting with doubles, the Tigers got off to a shaky start.  Falling at #2 and #3 doubles, and with #1 doubles in a tiebreaker, I was worried about what the night would look like.  Fortunately, Steven Berrios and Derick Anglin stepped up and pulled out a 9-7 (7-2) tiebreaker victory.  We began the match just too sluggish.  The boys were struggling to get their feet moving and continually gave their opponents easy shots at the net. Moving into Singles with a team score of 1-2, the Tigers had some catching up to do.  Winning the next three matches in a row, Waynesville pulled ahead to a 4-2 lead.  Eromo Aligbe set the court on fire, running his opponent into the ground.  I’m so impressed with the great strides Eromo has made since last season.  He was hitting unbelievable drop shots, just barely falling over the net, and forcing his opponent forward on the court.  Then, his lob placement was just impeccable, dropping the ball over his rival's head.  Salem just wasn’t keeping up and walked off the court completely exhausted.  Cameron Martell also had a completely different singles match, acting as a backboard to his challenger, and allowing him to finish with an 8-3 advantage.  With three more Varsity games left, Waynesville just needed one more game win to take the overall match “W.”  Derick Anglin fell behind immediately in his singles match, making several unforced errors and allowing his confidence to fall.  In the past, this would have overtaken Anglin completely, resulting in a loss.  Not anymore though.  Derick changed his game strategy and started gaining ground over his Salem opponent, ending with an 8-5 victory and solidifying an overall team win for the Tigers.  Other wins tonight were achieved by Tyler Gayman at 8-4 and David Sneed at 8-0.  The Varsity Netters will go on to compete in a pooled, team tournament on Thursday and Friday of this week. 

Singles

Steven Berrios vs. Eric Wood, 1-8

Tyler Gayman vs. Tyler Pilkington, 8-4

David Sneed vs. Jacob Stacy, 8-0

Derick Anglin vs. Sam Swindell, 8-5

Cameron Martell vs. Richard Parks, 8-3

Eromo Aligbe vs. Brock Thompson, 8-3

Doubles

Berrios/Anglin vs. Wood/Pilkington, 9-8 (7-2)

Gayman/Martell vs. Swindell/Parks, 4-8

Sneed/Aligbe vs. Stacy/Thompson, 7-9