MARYVILLE – Two men's tennis teams on even terms fought to the end of a match that came down to a trio of third-set tiebreakers. Franklin won two of those three tiebreakers and pulled out a 5-4 decision against Maryville here Thursday afternoon.
The Scots won two out of the three doubles matches to take an early lead.
Sam Cocchia and
Seth Green posted an 8-5 decision at No. 3 doubles for MC before Franklin evened the match with an 8-5 win at No. 1 doubles. Maryville's
Josh Fisher and
Kyle Shaver then pushed the No. 2 doubles to a tiebreaker, where the Scots dominated 7-0 to lift the home side into a 2-1 overall lead.
In singles, Franklin pocketed an early win at No. 6 before Shaver came back to sweep his match 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 3 position, keeping Maryville in front 3-2. Franklin won again at No. 2 singles to set the stage for the three closing matches that all went to a third-set, 10-point tiebreaker.
Fisher dropped his breaker to Franklin's Ezra Schwier to fall 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7), but then
Jackson Meyer rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (10-3) result that made it a 4-4 match. The Grizzlies prevailed when Nathan Jarboe outlasted Cocchia 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 (10-7) in another thriller.
Both teams are now 4-8.
Maryville (0-2 CCS) is back in action Saturday for Collegiate Conference of the South action against LaGrange (4-4, 0-2 CCS). The men's and women's matches begin at 2 p.m.
