For the first time this season, the varsity and JV played some of their best tennis on the same day as the Eagles enjoyed a strong showing at the Kokomo Invitational.
The varsity defeated a strong Peru team 3-2, beat Kokomo 4-1, and then lost to West Lafayette 3-2. West Lafayette, which has been state-ranked this season, was back at full strength yesterday while Delta played the match without two varsity players who were suffering from cramps.
In the JV tournament, Delta cruised to the championship, beating Peru 5-0, Kokomo 4-1 and West Lafayette 5-0.
Among the day’s highlights:
> No. 1 singles player Dalton Royal went 2-0 with an excellent 6-2, 6-3 win over Ian Potts of Peru and a strong win over Kokomo as well.
> Senior Colin McCrady enjoyed a great day with two wins at No. 1 doubles and a third-set tiebreak win at No. 3 singles over Kokomo’s Ty Gamble.
> Senior Riley Bratton went 3-0 at No. 1 doubles, winning two times with McCrady and once with Preston Shanayda. All victories were in straight sets.
> Senior Isaac Anderson went 3-0 at No. 2 doubles, winning twice with Jake Bilby and once with Shanayda. All victories were in straight sets.
> Shanayda, a junior, went 2-0 in doubles before filling in at No. 2 singles against West Lafayette.
> Bilby, a junior, went 2-0 on the day and now has earned his first varsity letter in tennis.
> Senior Owen Vest lost a very tight match against Peru senior Ben Beckman. Owen then was comfortably ahead of Kokomo’s No. 2 player, but after winning the first set 6-1 he then began to cramp early in the second set. Eventually, Owen lost 8-10 in a third-set tiebreaker.
> Sophomore Kody Vest dropped a long third-set tiebreak to Peru in the opening round. He then played No. 1 singles later in the day against West Lafayette senior star Arun Raman and battled well despite being outmatched.
> Junior Caleb Hewitt filled in at No. 3 varsity singles in the West Lafayette match after going 2-0 in JV action earlier in the day.
> Junior Simon Marlow had a great day, going 3-0 at the top JV singles spot including a tiebreak win over a solid foreign exchange student from Kokomo.
> Also going undefeated on the day for the JV were sophomore Owen Cupp, freshman Ben Miller, freshman Aaron Elliott, freshman John Atkinson, junior Will Kile and sophomore Kam Swoboda.
The varsity completed a strong week with victories over New Castle, Lapel, Peru and Kokomo and now has an 8-7 record, including 4-1 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. The JV stands at 8-5-2 for the season.
Next up is a Tuesday home match at 4:45 p.m. against rival Yorktown, which also is enjoying a big season. The Tigers are 10-2 overall and 3-2 in the HHC.