MARYVILLE – Maryville made the most of its final home match of the season, turning a 7-2 loss to Johnson in the fall into a 7-2 victory over those same Royals here Tuesday.
A beautiful afternoon for tennis saw the largest crowd of the home season on hand, and the folks watched some scintillating play by the home side. Maryville squeaked past the visitors 2-1 in doubles and then dominated the singles to cruise to victory.
Jonathan Crane and
Josh Fisher prevailed 8-3 at No. 2 doubles and then
Jackson Meyer and
Kyle Shaver pulled out an 8-5 victory at the No. 1 position.
Outside the Johnson victory at No. 1, the Scots did not drop a set in singles.
"I am very proud of the men for their effort today," Maryville head coach
Doug Corbett said. "We flipped the script on our 7-2 loss to Johnson in the fall.
"Big time and steady play by Kyle and Jackson at No. 1 doubles to give us the 2-1 lead. We left no doubt in singles, winning five of six – certainly one of our best singles efforts of the season. Our goal is to be playing our best tennis at the end of the season, and today was a good sign of that."
Shaver at No. 2 singles won a first-set tiebreaker and then rolled 6-1 in the second set. Meyer did the same at the No. 4 position, prevailing 7-3 in his tiebreaker before taking the second set. Fisher,
Seth Green and
Kaleb Burke completed the Maryville push in singles with straight-set victories.
The Scots improved to 7-10, while Johnson dropped to 9-12.
"We had great weather and one of our best crowds of the season," Corbett said. "We are very thankful for that! Awesome way to close out the home slate."
Maryville returns to action April 22 at Covenant in a 1 p.m. start. The Collegiate Conference of the South tournament takes place April 27-29.
