Panther men’s tennis has its first win of the year.
After the Spring Break holiday, the team returned to action on the week of March 16, traveling to Tuscola and Rabun Gap. With their first win of the year over Tuscola, a young Panther team improved their Mountain Eight Conference record to 1-1.
On March 18, they traveled to Rabun Gap for a nonconference match with the Eagles. While a tough Eagle team swept all six singles matches, the score didn’t necessarily tell the full story.
“I don’t particularly like losing, but this was a good loss,” said longtime head coach Sammy Gunter. “Three weeks earlier in our scrimmage with Rabun Gap, they just blitzed our guys in singles and we didn’t do much better in doubles. This match was a dogfight, as we played hard and improved tremendously in singles, and had a good chance to win some of them. ... In doubles, we got some good play from our #2 & #3 [pairs], as they played and served more consistently than their opponents to win fairly easily. Overall, I was extremely pleased how well we played against a solid, veteran team, and made them nervous as they were expecting an easy win – great improvement by our guys.”
With narrow losses in singles from Drew Hodges (#1), Hunter Thompson (#2), Cooper Jones (#3) and Miles Caldwell (#4), and doubles wins from Thompson/Caldwell (#2) and Myles Bargman/Sebastian Miranda (#3), Franklin greatly improved their result from the two teams’ preseason scrimmage. Two days later they traveled to Tuscola, where they outgunned the Mountaineers.
“Our squad came out firing on all cylinders with Hunter, Cooper, Miles and Myles winning fairly easily,” said Gunter. “At #1 Drew played well against an opponent who hit mostly slice forehands and backhands and could lob when Drew attacked the net, which is a tough style to play against. Even though [Hodges was] behind most of the first set, he finished strong to [make it] 6-6, forcing a tiebreak, which he lost. The second set was just as competitive when at 4-5 with a chance to break back, some costly errors creeped in for the loss.”
“The surprise of the day was at #6; Zack [Gibson] was not even close as he lost [his first set] 6-0 fairly quickly. However, he just kept getting ball after ball with backspin, which frustrated and unnerved his opponent for a win for us. The tiebreak was close until at 7-7 Zack was the more relaxed player and calmly finished it out. Well done by the freshman who just started playing this season.”
Aside from a narrow loss at #1 by Hodges, Franklin swept the contest’s singles portion, earning a dual-team victory with an all-important fifth win. In doubles, Thompson/Caldwell (#2) and Bargman/Miranda (#3) also won for an overall score of 7-2. The Panthers continued their M8 schedule versus Smoky Mountain after press time March 23.