Tiger tennis finishes quickly against TJ

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Tigers thought they were in for a long match when they took on state tennis power Thomas Jefferson Tuesday.

In fact it was just the opposite.

"Our longest match was 32 minutes," Nevada coach Dennis Pendrak said. He was not joking, just being honest.

Thomas Jefferson cruised to a 7-2 victory over the visiting Tigers, only losing two matches by forfeit because one of their players was unable to play.

Nevada was only able to win five games the whole match.

"We're just not at their level," Pendrak said. "A lot of people aren't at their level."

Pendrak said he would not be surprised to see Thomas Jefferson win it all this season.

"They're contenders for the state championship," he said. "They could possibly sweep all the placings at district."

Pendrak was not disappointed with the Nevada effort.

"Our kids really played well," he said. "We were just back on our heels and they pounded us."

Derek Fast was beaten by William Humphreys 8-1. He was one of two individuals to win a game.

Ryan Kimbrough, Justdan Lockwood and Ed Horst all fell by 8-0 counts.

Taylor Hall, making his regular season debut for Nevada, won three games in the only semi-competitive match of the day. He still lost 8-3 to Will Rhoades.

Adam Gullett won by forfeit for Nevada and so did a doubles team.

The other two doubles matches were 8-1 and 8-0 losses for the Tigers.

"Good news is we got to play and the other good news is we got to come home early," Pendrak joked.

The Tigers will be at home today, weather permitting, as they host Southwest Conference rival Carthage. That match is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.

"Now we'll get back to people closer to our level," Pendrak said.