Charleston netters defeat Sikeston Monday afternoon

CHARLESTON -- Two of the top teams in tennis' Class 1, District 1 went head-to-head Monday afternoon in Charleston with the Bluejays defeating the Sikeston Bulldogs 7-2.

The win moves Charleston's record to 9-2 in dual matches and keeps Bluejay seniors undefeated in dual matches against Missouri teams the last two seasons.

"I'm real happy for them," said Charleston coach Mitch Baker of his seniors. "Sikeston has an excellent team and it is very satisfying to get a win."

Baker said many of the matches could have gone either way.

"We hustled and played pretty smart today," Baker said. "We made some errors but we seemed to be able to win the big points when we needed to."

One of the big matches of the day was Derek Hoppe's 8-2 win over last year's runner-up in the singles competition, Sikeston's Marc Leible. Last year's district singles winner, Charleston's Alec Peterson, continued his fine play downing Sikeston No. 1 player Peter Jones 8-2.

"Everybody is playing well right now," Baker said. "Hopefully we can keep improving so we are peaking come district tournament time."

Sikeston's Chris Robey and Sam Zhao were the only two winners for the Bulldogs on the day.

"Charleston beat us up pretty good today," said Sikeston coach Brian James. "Our doubles teams played them tough, but we just couldn't pull out any wins and that put us in a big hole going into singles.

"I thought Sam Zhao and Chris Robey both showed some fortitude by pulling out their singles' matches, but it wasn't nearly enough."

With the loss, Sikeston's record falls to 8-3.

"We've got to improve and compete a little harder," James said. "We had a similar performance against Cape and they beat us and we played a stronger team today and about the same thing happened."

Sikeston will host Dexter at 3:30 p.m. today while Charleston will host St. Mary's of Paducah, Ky. on Friday.

"Our only three dual losses the last two years have come to schools from Paducah," Baker said. "We really need to get a win on Friday."

Complete results

Singles

1. Peter Jones (S) lost to Alec Peterson, 2-8

2. Marc Leible (S) lost to Derek Hoppe, 2-8

3. Chris Robey (S) def. Blake Branum, 9-8

4. Kyle Weeks (S) lost to Lee Hess, 3-8

5. Sam Zhao (S) def. Jake Garrard, 8-5

6. Chris Matthews (S) lost to Drew Kemp, 4-8

Doubles

1. Jones/Robey (S) lost to Peterson/Hoppe, 7-9

2. Leible/Weeks (S) lost to Branum/Hess, 5-8

3. Zhao/Matthews (S) lost to Garrard/Kemp, 7-9

JV winners: Singles: Logan Wagoner (S), Logan Hampton (S), Matt Strom (S), Craig Millington (S), Grant Ingram (S)

Doubles: Wagoner/Strom (S), Millington/Ingram (S).