Logan netters top Cass

Logansport’s boys tennis team opened its season with a 4-1 win over Lewis Cass Wednesday at the LHS tennis courts.

The Berries swept the wins in singles play. Bryan Zehner defeated Brady Truman 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1, Cory Rozzi defeated Nick Jackson 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 and Owen Swartzell defeated Brennen Garland 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3.

Logan also got the win at No. 1 doubles, where Dustin Clements and Luke Vernon defeated Riley Johnson and Ryan Aldridge 6-3, 6-2.

“For the first night it was a good win,” Logan coach Mike Montgomery said. “Both teams probably looked like it was the first night out. There were a lot of mistakes that hopefully will get corrected as the season goes along.

“We played well in three spots. Zehner and Swartzell played extremely well. Swartzell had a slow start but won the last nine or 10 games. Clements and Vernon played well. At 2 singles Rozzi had to fight. The Jackson kid gets to a lot of stuff and makes you work. Cory made a lot of mistakes but grinded it out against him.”

Chris Laudenschlager and Jake Gremelspacher picked up the lone point of the night for Cass at No. 2 doubles in their 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2) win at No. 2 doubles over Nathaniel King and Lucas Eastburn.

“Jake and Chris played a pretty solid match at 2 doubles being their first match,” Cass coach Brian Thomas said. “They finished that match strong. They came back from a 2-5 deficit in the third set to force a tie-breaker. I’m really impressed with how well they clicked this early. I was going to look at a couple different doubles combinations, but I’m definitely going to keep them together for a couple matches.

“Nick Jackson played the best match of everybody at 2 singles. He hit the ball well and was really ready to play, and I really like what I saw with that.”

The Cass coach added he expects to see a lot of improvement throughout the season.

“We played decent. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement and we knew that going into the match,” he said.

The two teams could meet again in sectional play at the end of the season, and Montgomery expects it would be a battle.

“You never know, he could change his lineup around. They’re going to try to steal one in singles and hope their doubles can hold on,” he said.