| Joe Harber was the only Carbon singles player who finished victorious in the home meet against North Sanpete on Tuesday. Harber defeated Brett Pehrson of North Sanpete in two sets, 6-0 and 6-2. |
The Carbon High Dinos tennis team hit the courts on Tuesday to take on the North Sanpete Hawks. This was one of the first meets held at home for the Dinos this season, and unfortunately, the outcome was not as hoped for.
The Dinos struggled in both singles and doubles matches, leading to the Dinos 3-2 loss to the visiting Hawks.
Matt King, who has had a successful season thus far for the Dinos, had a hard time against his Hawk opponent Jared Garlick. According to tennis coach Kurt King, “Matt got down on himself. He had a difficult time serving, and when you can’t serve well, you can’t win. Matt just struggled and he has to play better than he did against North Sanpete in the remainder of the season.”
After struggling at serving, King could not find his swing. The frustration wore off in King’s playing abilities and eventually lead his two set defeat, 7-5, 6-1.
Beau Christensen is another player who has done well for Carbon this season. Christensen also struggled on Tuesday. “For unknown reasons, Beau had a difficult time against North Sanpete. He also had trouble serving and was hard on himself because of it,” explained coach King.
Christensen also lost two sets to his Hawk opponent Philip Gobrecht by the scores of 0-6, 4-6.
In the final singles match up, Joe Harber managed to finish successful, leading to one of the Dinos two points. Harber faced Brett Pehrson, whom Harber succeeded at defeating 6-0, 6-2.
In the doubles match ups, Carbon split two series, with the Hawks. In the successful set for Carbon, Sean Watkins and Neal Maynes defeated their Hawk opponents Burnside and Hansen by the scores of 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
After Watkins and Maynes defeated the Hawks, this brought the results even at 2-2. The match outcome relied on the two most unexperienced players for the Dinos, Andrew Christensen and Kellen Spillman. The duo fell to their Hawk opponents Seely and Perry by the score of 5-7 in the first set, and managed to defeat the Hawks 6-3 in the second set.
This put the pressure on for the Dino duo who were now in a do or die situation, needing to win the third set in order for the Dinos to win the match.
Spillman and Christensen lead throughout most of the set, but then fell apart near the end, losing to the Hawks, 4-6 in the third and final set. With the Hawk victory, came the overall win for the team over Carbon.
“It was unfortunate that the match came down to the two most unexperienced players. They did do well however, but just could not hold on to win,” concluded coach King.
The Dinos loss was an upset for the team, who had the victory within grasp. “We just had a terrible day. The players did not play as well as they are capable of. They need to improve if they want to be a competitive team this season. Serving is the most important aspect of the game, and the players need to get this under control,” explained coach King.
The Dinos hope to rebound from the home loss on Wednesday as the team travels to Wasatch to take on the Wasps. The road trip just might help the players to work out the bugs that plagued them at home on Tuesday. If the confidence level can raise, the team just might bounce back from the upset at home.