Red-hot Sikeston tennis team wins again

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Sikeston tennis team continued its dominance with another impressive win on Monday at Carbondale, Ill.

The Bulldogs defeated the Terriers 7-2 to improve to 6-1 on the season. Carbondale's two victories broke a five-match shutout streak for the Bulldogs.

"I thought we played the best that we've played all year," said Sikeston head coach Brian James. "Carbondale's a very good team. We've really improved in the last couple of weeks. Our doubles played very well today and they've really improved quite a bit."

Sikeston's doubles swept the competition. Stephen Pobst/Adam Hahs beat J.J. Mogharrebam/Jackson Marusaic 8-1; Ryne Vickery/Peter Jones beat Stephen Yau/Larry Spears 8-6; and Marc Leible/Chris Robey beat Michael Gross/Nate Talley 8-5.

In singles, Pobst had his toughest match of the year, but he was able to hold on to defeat Yau 11-9.

"His opponent was undefeated coming in, just like Stephen," said James. "He was a very consistent player and he pushed Stephen. Those kind of matches are good for him and it's good experience for Stephen to play good players like that."

Sikeston also got singles winners from Vickery (10-2 over Gross), Jones (10-2 over Mogharrebam) and Leible (10-4 over Talley).

Hahs lost to Spears 5-10 and Robey lost to Bryce Basler 7-10.

Sikeston's jayvee winners were the doubles team of Aaron Senter/Ben Jones and Ryan Davis/Ryan Dukes.

Sikeston also competed in the Poplar Bluff Invitational over the weekend in which they took first place.

The tournament was set up with two pools of singles brackets. Pobst and Hahs won their respective brackets and faced each other in the championship where Pobst won 8-4.

The doubles teams of Vickery/Jones and Leible/Robey both reached the finals of their respective pools but weren't able to advance to the championship match.

But still, their performances combined with Pobst and Hahs' was enough to win the tournament.

"The tournament is set up like a district tournament," said James. "You have a couple of singles entries and a couple doubles entries. We performed quite well in that tournament and we were fortunate to win the championship."