Archive for Saturday, August 23, 2008
Photo by Matt Stensland
Steamboat Springs High School freshman tennis player Kyle Rogers serves the ball Friday evening during a No. 4 doubles match against Fruita Monument High School. Kyle and his freshman partner Murphy Roberts won their match.
Tennis cruises again
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Steamboat 7, Fruita 0
- No. 1 singles - Steamboat's Jamey Swiggart def. Tristan Beck, 6-0, 6-1
- No. 2 singles - Steamboat's Keegan Burger def. Antonio Pestello, 6-2, 6-2
- No. 3 singles - Steamboat's Jeff Lambart def. J.P. Lambart, 6-2, 6-3
- No. 1 doubles - Steamboat's Charlie Smith and Jack Burger def. Chase Martin and Brandon Ruckman, 6-2, 6-1
- No. 2 doubles - Steamboat's Max Roder and Mirko Erspamer def. Cody Iofn and Vinnie Castillini, 6-4, 6-2
- No. 3 doubles - Steamboat's Ben Paley and Zach Valicenti def. Josh Weedon and Alex Lickers, 6-1, 6-4
- No. 4 double - Steamboat's Murphy Roberts and Kyle Rogers def. Andy Hoeckel and Ryan Hartzinger, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1
Steamboat Springs — Steamboat's No. 4 doubles team of Murphy Roberts and Kyle Rogers talk and carry themselves more like experienced veterans than freshmen playing the second high school match of their careers.
They don't talk about being wowed or overwhelmed. Instead they explain how they were able to beat Fruita's Andy Hoeckel and Ryan Hartzinger in helping the Steamboat Springs High School tennis team pick up its second consecutive 7-0 win Friday.
"Other teams see us and probably think we're just going to hit dinky shots every time and that they'll overpower us," Rogers said. "But we hit the ball hard, and we can play."
After cruising through the first set, 6-3, the freshmen duo lost the second set, 6-1.
But where some teams would have let the momentum shift of a tough second-set loss turn the tide of the match, the freshmen turned in a dominating set with a 6-1 drubbing.
"We thought we could do this easily," Roberts said about the second set. "We let down our guard and were not aggressive or charging the net. We made sure to hit cross court and stay strong."
Their performance was just one-seventh of another dominating Steamboat performance.
Just days after losing just one set to Montrose in the team's first match of the year, Steamboat duplicated the performance Friday at the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs.
The singles trio of Jamey Swiggart, Keegan Burger and Jeff Lambart breezed through their matches, not dropping a single set.
All three other doubles teams did the same, cruising to two-set victories.
"We just can't play cocky," said Charlie Smith, who along with partner Jack Burger easily beat Fruita's Chase Martin and Brandon Ruckman at No. 1 doubles. "We have to play our game and finish opponents."
The No. 2 doubles team of Max Roder and Mirko Erspamer and the No. 3 doubles team of Ben Paley and Zach Valicenti each put their opponents away in two sets.
The win leaves Steamboat 2-0 on the season. While the first two opponents were nice to get the early season jitters out of the way, Steamboat's schedule gets tougher. The team should see its first legitimate opponent Sept. 5 and 6 at the Western Slope Open.
Until then, coach John Aragon said he's just happy to see the improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.
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