Paced by singles events, Highland boys tennis team continues its surge

The suddenly surging Highland boys tennis team continued its red-hot roll with another strong performance on Monday.

Thanks to a near sweep in singles play, Highland posted a 6-3 dual-match victory at home over Mississippi Valley Conference rival Waterloo.

Highland, which improved to 11-3 (3-0) won its third straight conference match in a week after posting wins over Mascoutah and Jerseyville last week.

“We played three conference matches in the last three school days, so it’s been busy, but it’s a tight conference this year, and Waterloo is one of those teams are gonna be tough,” Matt Pellock said. “Hopefully those wins give us a little confidence come conference tournament time.”

Highland had a strong day in the singles flights. Grant Fleming posted a 6-2, 7-6 victory at No. 1 singles.

“Grant got down early in his match and battled back and won some games then took the first set and battled through a tiebreaker to win his match,” Pellock said.

At No. 2 singles, Jack Meyer claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win. Will Lindsco pushed through a long three-set match to win 5=7, 7-6, and 10-8 needed two tiebreakers to win at No. 3 singles.

“Will had a really long match with the two tiebreakers but he came back to win it,” Pellock said.

Bryant Smith also won in three sets taking the No. 4 singles flight 6-1, 3-6, and 10-7.

Breckin Box handled his match at No. 5 singles with relative ease, winning 6-3, 6-2.

Jackson Cline wrapped up the singles flights at No. 6, losing his match, 3-6, 4-6.

Pellock expected the matches to be close in the singles and was glad to see the Bulldogs get some of those matches to go their way.

“I had a feeling it would be like that and hoped that we would get the bulk of those (to go our way) and in the singles, there were a lot of important spots we needed because Waterloo is very tough,” Pellock said.

Highland fared less well in doubles play.

Fleming and Meyer paired at No. 1 doubles and won their match 6-4, 6-1.

Lindsco and Box lost at No. 2 doubles 4-6, and 2-6. Smith and Cline lost a three-set match tiebreaker 7-6, 3-6, and 4-10.

Pellock was very pleased with the Bulldogs’ showing and believed the team’s experience in the roster is paying dividends early.

“Tonight, we played pretty well overall and we have a lot of pretty good experience through the lot and I think we kind of saw that a little bit more this evening,” Pellock said.

Highland returns to action on the courts on Wednesday with a 4 p.m. conference road match at Civic Memorfial in Bethalto.