The Joplin High School boys tennis team suffered a 9-0 loss to Willard on Thursday in Central Ozark Conference action at the JHS athletic complex.
“We knew going into today that Willard had a strong team with a lot of depth,” Joplin coach Aaron Stump said.
At No. 1 doubles, Willard’s Caden Lingenfelser and Alex Crawford defeated Joplin’s Logan Merkley and Jeffrey Evenson 8-0.
In the other doubles matches, Luke Christiansen and Brayden Roth defeated Ben Wardlow and Colin Vermillion 8-1 and Austin Long and Seth Miller topped Josh Yarnall and Michael Mancipe 8-5.
“Josh and Michael started out well,” Stump commented. “Their opponents had some really strong serves to finish the match.”
In singles play, Willard’s Lingenfelser beat Merkley 8-0 and Crawford defeated Evenson 8-2.
“Despite the score, Jeff played well,” Stump noted. “He had long rallies against his opponent and got to deuce multiple times.”
At No. 3 singles, Joplin’s Wardlow suffered an 8-3 loss to Christiansen.
“Ben started out pretty far behind but was able to win a few games near the end of his match,” Stump said.
In other singles matches, Roth defeated Yarnall 8-2, Long topped Mancipe 8-2 and Miller beat Vermillion 8-2.
Joplin is at Neosho on Tuesday.
