After being postponed due to rainy weather, the Manhattan Boys Tennis team traveled to Washburn Rural on Thursday to compete in a quad tournament. The Indians brought only one upperclassmen with them, and it seems as if it paid off. The Indians finished in first place winning nine out of the 12 matches they competed in.

“We sent three sophomores, two freshmen and Bryce who is our lone senior that is in our top six and we played some of the top teams in our league and took first in the tournament so I mean it was good.” Coach Brandon Starkey said.

Senior Bryce Easton led the Indians winning all three of his matches. He started off strong with a win against Washburn rural, with a score of 8-4. In his second match he got out to an early lead before giving up four games straight before finishing off Topeka High 8-6. He rounded out the day with an 8-0 win against Topeka West.

“I think at some points I did get overly confident,” Easton said. “I gave up a seven to two lead to finish winning eight to six so I gave up four points in a row. I think the most important thing I can do is focus on my matches when I have them and focus on getting on my teammates after I have taken care of my matches. I need to not let how my teammates do distract me from my match.”

The doubles team of sophomores Carson Gido and Mitch Hutchinson won two matches and lost only one. The second doubles team consisting of freshmen Jerin Ugrin and Robert Zhang also won two and lost one. Both teams were not able to outlast the Washburn Rural duos.

“I wish our doubles teams could have beat Washburn Rural but they are good ya know so, sometimes you meet good teams,” Coach Starkey said. “It might be a bad loss for us for regionals but overall the tournament went well.”

The team is taking steps forward by playing with consistency.

“Our consistency was really on and we mainly lost when the other team just outplayed us,” Easton said. “So I think in preparation for the next tournament we will need to use better tennis strategies, like coming to the net and controlling the points from there.”

Even with young players the Indians showed poise by playing with confidence and resiliency.

“[We competed well], we would lose a match, not put our heads down, get back and play better the next match,” Coach Starkey said. “Jerin and Robert, the two freshman, got down pretty bad in their last match and they didn’t freak out, a lot of times when you see younger kids they start playing bad, they get overly mad, get in their head and make mistakes they normally wouldn’t, then lose. But Jerin and Robert didn’t, they gutted it out, played a little better, and got the win.”

The Indians will look to repeat this performance April 11 in a quad against Junction City, Highland Park and Marysville in Manhattan.