Sailors tennis team wins season opener
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
Steamboat Springs — Despite continuing injuries, Steamboat's boys tennis team swung into action with a 5-2 victory over Littleton High School Friday.
Rich Tifft, who is recovering from May shoulder surgery, returned to the court to take the only singles win for the Sailors. With just an underhand serve, Tifft decisively defeated Littleton's Chris Jackson in games of 6-0, 6-0.
"It was really the third match I had played," Tifft said. "It was kind of hard without serving. That is my weapon."
Following a weeklong break from this weekend's matches, Tifft is expecting to return to full serves.
The rest of the Steamboat singles team did not fare well with Spencer Roos losing to Ryan Matava 6-0, 6-2 and Matt Mooney losing to Jeff Hege 6-4, 6-0.
With No. 2 singles player Joe Cutler injured and the possible No. 3 player Carter Allen out of town, Steamboat had to shift its singles lineup.
"We really haven't gotten all of our challenge matches together," Tifft said. "We don't know who is on top. This weekend, we'll get things sorted out."
Steamboat rebounded in doubles play taking all four matches. The No. 1 doubles team of Jeff Aragon and David Upbin won 6-4, 6-1.
Aragon said despite the win, he and Upbin were still adjusting to each other's play.
"We didn't play so well," Aragon said. "We'd never played a match together."
But by the end of their match, Aragon said the doubles team started to gel.
This weekend, Steamboat is scheduled to face Poudre on Friday and Thompson Valley on Saturday.
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