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.