The Wildcats took on OK Gold Conference rivals Thornapple-Kellogg Trojans on Wednesday night in Middlevile.  While Wayland lost with an overall score of 2-6, the individual game scores tell a tale of tennis matches that were very close, with 3 of the 8 matches going to full 3rd set tie-breakers.

At 4th Doubles, Asher Hendricks and Malcolm Sheffer split the first 2 sets, then lost in the 3rd set 3-6.  At 3rd Doubles, the Freshman team of Spencer Miller and Brycen Rookus also split their first 2 sets, then came up just short in the 3rd set, falling 5-7.

There were a couple bright spots for the Wayland Wildcats!  At 1st Doubles, Mason Babiak and Brayden Tomson handled the Trojans, winning 6-1, 6-2 to move their Conference record to 2-1 and their individual records to 6-3 and 7-2 respectively.

The match of the day belonged to 4th Singles player Jacob VanDuine, playing for a grueling 3 hours and 25 minutes in 85* heat.  Jacob won the first set 6-1 and was seemingly ready to cruise to a 2-set win.  But TK Sr. Anson Verlinde would not go quietly and took the 2nd set 7-6, forcing the Conference match to a full 3rd set.  In the 3rd set, with both players battling fatigue and heat exhaustion, Jacob’s disciplined approach and consistency were enough to come out ahead 6-3.  

The Wildcats travel to Northview for their 4th Conference match on Monday, Sept. 16th.