Republic tennis captured two more wins this week in the run-up to today’s Central Ozark Conference Tournament. The Tigers beat Springfield Catholic Monday, 7-2. They knocked off Ozark in a COC match Tuesday on the road, also 7-2.
At Catholic, Republic got doubles wins from the teams of Garrett Carpenter and Jon Cole, and Cooper Davis and Cooper Choate. Carpenter and Cole pulled away in a close match to give the Tigers the lead heading into singles.
In singles Carpenter won several big deuce points to put away a close match. Gavin Collyott had a big win with carry-over effects, according to coach David Smashey. “Gavin just dominated his match which only took about half an hour. A win like that really gives a lot of confidence to his teammates,” he said.
Jon Cole also stood out with a strong 8-4 singles win. “Jon makes so many great aggressive second serves when his opponents are expecting something soft and easy to handle. Those serves make me a lot more nervous than they seem to make Jon,” Smashey said.
The Tigers won five of six singles matches to close out the night.
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At Ozark, Republic swept the doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead on the way to a 7-2 conference win. But it wasn’t easy.
“Amazing match,” said Smashey. “We were down late in all three doubles matches, came back and won all three. We were really in trouble. All our guys just kept playing and didn’t panic. Eventually we got some opportunities and we made big shots. You change 9 or 10 points across the 9 matches and we could have easily lost by the same score.”
The Tigers also fell behind in the first three singles matches, but got strong performances from slots three through six to finish the night with a win.
The Tigers stand at 6-2 in the COC with a still-unfinished match against Willard. Republic is competing in the COC Tournament today.
Results vs Catholic
1doubles Elder/Collyott 4-8
2doubles Carpenter/Cole 8-5
3doubles Davis/Choate 8-3
1singles Elder 6-8
2singles Carpenter 8-6
3singles Cole 8-4
4singles Collyott 8-1
5singles Davis 8-2
6singles Choate 8-2
Results vs Ozark
1doubles 8-6 Elder/Collyott
2doubles 8-6 Carpenter/Cole
3doubles 9-8 (7-3) Long/Choate
1singles 6-8 Elder
2singles 6-8 Carpenter
3singles 8-4 Cole
4singles 8-0 Collyott
5singles 8-4 Long
6singles 8-1 Davis