Men’s Tennis Wins on the Road at East Central

Decatur, MS—The Marion Military Institute Tigers traveled to Mississippi to play the Warriors of East Central Community College on a perfect day for tennis—sunny with the temperature hovering near 70 degrees.  The Friday afternoon match was a tale of two matches, with the Warriors taking two of three doubles matches and the Tigers sweeping singles play.  In the end, though, the Tigers came from behind to put their first "W" in the win column for the spring season, 7-2.

The Tigers got off to a shaky start in doubles play.  All three matches went the distance and were settled in tiebreakers at 8-8.  The Tigers fell behind 2-0 in the match when Flights 2 and 3 doubles went the Warriors' way, 7-4 and 9-7, respectively.  Harry Foster and Andrew Wright tallied MMI's first point of the afternoon with their 7-3 tiebreaker win.

"We were lucky to salvage at least one of the doubles matches today," said head tennis coach Charles Wright.  "We very well could have been looking at a 3-0 hole going into singles.  Harry and Andrew survived and put up a much-needed point for the team."

The Tigers produced three quick singles points with straight-set wins by Adam Bahney at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-3; Wright at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-2; and Xavier Bell at No. 4 singles, 6-3, 6-1.  The match was decided when Foster, at No. 2 singles, captured a three-setter, 3-6, 6-0, 10-6.

Shane McDonough's 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles and Ben Lee's three-set thriller at No. 6 singles put the final touches on the singles sweep for the Tigers.

The Tigers will be off for a week before returning to the road again, this time to take on the University of Mobile in an exhibition match on Tuesday, February 23.  The match is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m.