From Coach Bob Long:
     The Chillicothe boys' tennis team (7-5) traveled to St Joseph Tuesday, playing two dual matches, the Lafayette Fighting Irish and the rescheduled match against the Savages of Savannah. The Lafayette match began the afternoon. Gabe Poling now 12-0 on the season, found himself down 5-7, before battling back and winning in a tie-breaker (7-3) against the unbeaten in-conference opponent, Billy Cook. Nate McKiddy held off Alex Brand, 8-6. Garrett Peterson ended up on the wrong side of a streaky match, losing 7-9 to Clayton Hadley. Nathan Sims played Dalton Ellis even for the first half of the match, but was outdistanced eventually 5-8. Isaiah Barron picked up a Hornet win, 8-6, in a tight match against the Fighting Irish opponent, Andrew Wolf. Lane Bonderer was unsuccessful in his singles match versus James Henderson, 2-8. After splitting the singles, 3-3, Lafayette took all three doubles contests for the 6-3 dual win. Gabe and Nathan lost 6-8, to Brand and Hadley. Nate and Garrett lost 3-8, to Cook and Wolf. Isaiah and Lane lost 4-8, to Ellis and Henderson.
     In the second match, Chillicothe defeated Savannah 5-4, in a late night thriller. Gabe Poling beat Craig Helm 8-2. Nate McKiddy, down 2-5, stormed back and captured the victory, 9-7, against Baxter Krumme. Garrett Peterson defeated Briley Krumme in a hard fought match 8-2. Nathan Sims kept everyone out late, eventually losing to Chase Furgison, 6-8. Isaiah Barron lost a close match, 7-9, to Zane Beattie of Savannah. Lane Bonderer, down early, fought back, but lost 6-8 to Morgan Barr. Splitting singles, 3-3, for the second time of the evening, Chillicothe needed to win 2 out of 3 doubles. Isaiah and Lane, traded leads before losing 5-8 to Beattie and Barr. Nate and Garrett, defeated the Krumme twins for the second time of the evening, 8-4. With Gabe and Nathan down, 3-5, the best player in the conference began to exert his dominance. The Hornet duo, turned things around, and secured the team victory, 8-5, against the Savage team of Helm and Furgison.
     It was a "late and exciting" evening of tennis. Gabe Poling faced his toughest test this the season as of yet. He handled the adversity and pulled out the win. Nate McKiddy had his best day of tennis in his short career. He won both singles matches (coming from behind in his Savannah match) and topped the night off with a crucial doubles win. The Savannah team will be the first round district opponent for the Hornets Monday, May 12. Each team had an injured player expected to return. The district match will certainly be closely fought.