The Eagles, despite several players being banged up with injuries, won their home invitational on Saturday, beating Richmond 5-0, edging Western 3-2, and then downing Norwell 3-2 in the finals.
In the final round, Delta played without No,. 1 singles player Simon Marlow (hip) and No. 2 doubles player Aaron Elliott (lower back), but had enough depth to still win the championship. Usual No. 2 singles player Kody Vest (knee) moved to No. 2 doubles for the match.
Jake Bilby, usually the No. 3 singles player, moved up to No. 1 singles and lost 3-6, 0-6.
Caleb Hewitt moved from JV singles to No. 2 varsity singles and fell 2-6, 3-6.
Freshman Tyce Dishman, usually No. 2 doubles, moved into No. 3 singles and played his first-ever varsity singles match. He won 6-4, 6-4 to improve his varsity record to 10-2.
Seniors Dalton Royal and Preston Shanayda remained at No. 1 doubles and won 6-1, 6-1 over a solid and athletic Norwell duo.
Vest and Kam Swoboda slid into No. 2 doubles and cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory.
In the opening round, Delta romped past Richmond 5-0.
The highlight was Simon Marlow’s 7-5, 6-3 victory over Ethan Farrar at No. 1 singles. Kody Vest won easily at No. 2, and Caleb Hewitt collected his first varsity win at No. 3 by a 6-2, 6-3 score. Both doubles teams — Royal/Shanayda and Dishman/Elliott — won 6-0, 6-0.
In the semifinals, Delta survived a big threat from a strong Western team that won its conference title recently. Western went ahead 1-0 early when Marlow injured his hip and had to retire at 0-5 in the opening set. Royal and Shanayda evened the score at 1-1 with a 6-0, 6-2 win.
All three of the remaining matches went to a third-set tiebreaker.
Jake Bilby trailed 3-6, 0-6 at No. 3 singles before rallying to win the second set 7-6 and force a deciding tiebreaker. Western won the TB 6-10 to take a 2-1 lead in the team match.
Elliott and Dishman made it 2-2 when they prevailed 6-2, 2-6, 10-2 at No. 2 doubles.
That left it up to Kody Vest at No. 2 singles. He won the opening set 6-4, then dropped the second set 3-6. Hobbling with a sore knee, he fell behind 5-8 in the third-set TB before winning five straight points for the decisive 10-8 victory.
Delta (14-4) now has won six matches this season by a 3-2 score.
In JV action, Caleb Hewitt went 1-0, Jake Bilby went 1-0, James Root went 1-0, Owen Cupp went 1-0, Kam Swoboda went 1-1, and Hanson Heintzelman went 1-3.