The Harlan County tennis team suffered a pair of losses Friday in its home opener against North Laurel, falling 7-2 in boys action and 7-2 in the girls match.
“If I had to speak about the performance today, it is a major improvement compared to our first match against Knox Central,” said first-year HCHS coach Caleb Bailey. “We have only two seniors on our teams so we are very young and our players are learning. We competed very well against a well established program in North Laurel, which is always a top two team in the region.
“This loss is nothing to hang our head about. We got some wins today against North and that is very hard to come by. We are learning and growing day by day. This is my first year being the head tennis coach, and I am excited to build our program up to be one that competes with these teams. Our guys and girls competed and played their hearts out. I wouldn’t trade these kids for anything. I’m a proud coach.
HCHS will play Barbourville on Monday at Union College.
Results include:
Boys
Singles
Sawyer Cornett lost 0-8 to Zach Harbach
Chandler Smith lost 0-8 to Mahir Neeraj
Tony Reynolds won 8-6 over Zaid Salim
Cody Clayborn lost 1-8 to Trey Walton
Calan Neely lost 0-8 to Will Walton
Braden Engle lost 0-8 to Cotton Cunagin
Doubles
Reynolds/Clayborn lost 2-8 to Walton/Walton
Cornett/Smith lost 1-8 Neeraj/Salim
Neely/Engle won 7-6 (7-5) in a tiebreaker against Cotton Cunagin/ Derek Vahn
Bricen Brock and Steven Fee lost 0-6 to Cunagin/Vahn
Girls
Singles
Amber Lewis lost 8-2 to Jaron Gray
Jaya Wilhelmy lost 0-8 against Eva Clark
Lindsay Hall lost 0-8 to Baylor McCreary
Abigail Gaw lost 0-8 to Erin Cheek
Laura Ball lost 0-8 to Corbin Jasser
Doubles
Hall and Gaw lost 1-8 to Eva Clark and Erin Cheek.
Lewis/Wilhelmy lost 4-8 to Cheek and Jasser