South Putnam boys lose tennis match with West Vigo

Collin Berry of South Putnam charges the net to return a shot during Tuesday's loss at home. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

The South Putnam Eagles boys' tennis team hosted the West Vigo Vikings Tuesday night. The Vikings made the lengthy trip down U.S. 40 only to go back victorious in all five of their matches.

The Eagles played tough, but coach Zack Love believes they came out a little flat and that is why they could not come away with victories.

"I thought we came out a little flat to start things off," Love said. "We played a little more competitive as the night went on."

Of the singles matches, Eagles' number two player Josh Stewart came the closest to pulling away with a win. He lost both his sets, 6-4 and 6-3, to a tall Logan Benefiel.

Benefiel's size and athletic ability allowed him to get highly hit balls and place balls high in the air where Stewart could not reach them.

"I thought Josh Stewart played well in spurts tonight," Love said. "He just couldn't put an entire match together. He kind of made a run in each set, but he came up a little bit short."

The number one singles took place between Collin Berry (SP) and Kyle Watson (WV). Watson got the best of Berry, 6-2 and 6-0.

Aaron Cole rounded out the singles matches for South Putnam losing both sets, 6-2, to Ethan Horsely.

The South Putnam doubles groups also had issues Tuesday. Ben Albright and Zane Cosby started out slow losing their first set 6-1, but came back to tie the second set 6-6 before falling 8-6.

"The doubles were right there," Love said. "Once again, they just got off to a slow start. We forced a tie-break in the second set, but just come up a little bit short."

The duo of Jacob Lorimer and Nick Chambers fell in both sets 6-2.

The Eagles will have another chance at the Vikings in an invitational this Saturday at 9 a.m. Northview High School hosts the invite and Sullivan will be there as well.

"They (Vikings) are a pretty good team," Love said. "We faced them earlier this year in a tournament and we get a chance at them again this weekend. We'll have the opportunity to see some of these guys again."

The Eagles only have this week before next week's sectionals. This is a good week to prepare for what they are likely to see in coming days.

"It's hard telling how that's going to go right now," Love said. "Our schedule is pretty heavy on the back end. We play tomorrow, we play Thursday, we play in a tournament Saturday and we come back for a regular season match on Monday. This was our sixth match, so we've got a lot of our schedule to play out."

At South Putnam