FORTVILLE —They may be young pups, but they played like big dogs Wednesday.
Mt. Vernon’s youthful boys tennis team pulled out a 4-1 victory over Franklin Central at the Mt. Vernon courts, clinching the match with a back-and-forth win from its new No. 1 doubles team.
In just their second match together, junior Matthew Jones and freshman Bryndan Wylie defeated Franklin Central senior Landon Carlisle and junior Aaron Mahoney 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8).
They were down a set, forced a third set, and shared breaks of serves before clinching the win over the elder opponents.
“A freshman and junior, second match ever together, coming back from losing the first set — those are the dogs I’m looking for,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “Those are the dogs we want at Mt. Vernon. Those are the dogs that will get us where we want to go.”
The Marauder tandem led 3-0 in the tiebreaker. The Flashes tied it 3-3, before Jones-Wylie got to match point at 6-4. Tied again at 6-6, Wylie got the match-winning point.
“It was our communication with each other and not letting up,” Jones said in the key to outlasting the Flashes.
“Having a competitive spirit, fighting to the end and never giving up,” Wylie added on how he and Jones prevailed.
The Marauders picked up two team points early.
Junior No. 1 singles player Adam Koon was first to leave the courts with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Hayden Hege.
Shortly after Koon finished, Franklin Central’s No. 2 doubles team of Ethan Jackson and Chase Rigler defeated Mt. Vernon’s team of Max Orelup and Tate Cougill 6-1, 6-1.
Mt. Vernon’s No. 2 singles player, sophomore Manny Downs, took care of Tyler Sobieralski 6-1, 6-3.
From then on it was a waiting game between the match at No. 1 doubles and the No. 3 singles battle between Mt. Vernon’s Robbie Moore and FC’s Brendan Engle.
After the doubles group clinched the team victory, Moore eventually outlasted Engle in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win that lasted over three hours.
“This is a huge win. You have the state championship coach from Carmel (Bryan Hanan) now coaching Franklin Central. He’s going to bring that mentality,” Muterspaugh said. “Franklin Central is a tough team and is going to beat a lot of teams. This is a huge win. Manny and Adam took care of business and we knew we were going to be in a dogfight.”
