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After a longer wait than expected for their first meet of the year, the Canby boys’ tennis team played their first two matches of the season this past week, falling to Lakeridge and playing in a thriller against Cleveland.
The Cougars originally had two games scheduled for before spring break, but both fell victim to Oregon rain. The meets against Tigard and Glencoe, both postponed, will have to wait for later in April.
In their first match against the Lakeridge Pacers, the Cougars ran into trouble in the form of the ever-talented Pacer squad. Cal Wait picked up the only win of the day for Canby, taking down Keaton Hornberger 6-2, 6-0.
In a forgettable day against a top squad, the boys fell in the other seven games.
But their Friday match against Cleveland would be anything but forgettable. Canby and Cleveland would win four games apiece, splitting both the singles and doubles categories in one of the most evenly matched events this year.
Canby took the No. 1 and 4 singles matches and the No. 2 and 4 doubles. Ignacio Alvarez took down Peter Van Vleet, 6-4, 6-4, while Jonah Ayers defeated Thatcher Pacholl 6-0, 6-2. Ryan Scarborough and Riley Hemsi-Walters lost their singles matches.
In the No. 1 doubles game, Cleveland took down Eli Rupp and Chai Hemsi-Walters. Meanwhile, the second doubles team played in the closest game of the day. Cadel Kuhl and Jake Rierson lost the first set to Cleveland, 2-6, but rallied to win the next two sets and the game, winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
While Thomas Wing and Evan Kinzie lost their No. 3 game, the Cougars fared better in the fours as Jerimiah Vockrodt and Ryan Mills also staged a comeback of their own.
The two Cougars also lost their first set 2-6, but won the second and dominated the third, winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. At the end of the day, Cleveland claimed the narrow victory by taking 10 sets to Canby’s eight, though the two teams won four matches apiece.
The Cougars have three more matches on the docket for next week, with Three Rivers League foes Tualatin and Lake Oswego, as well as a non-league game in Putnam on the schedule. Canby’s first home game, Monday against Tualatin, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.