Neither Gage Davidson nor Zach Willams could remember being a part of such a dominating performance.
The Winona State University men’s tennis team picked up its first win of the season Saturday, beating Lewis (Ill.) 9-0 without even dropping a set.
“I don’t really remember doing that before,” said Davidson, a junior who won his No. 1 singles match 6-0, 6-2. “I was very surprised we killed them like that.”
The Warriors cruised through doubles play, and Aaron Lentz (6-1, 6-0), Stuart Booth (6-0, 6-4) and Taylor Rens (7-5, 6-1) had little trouble in their singles matches. Freshman Tanner Bishop won by default.
While WSU as a team didn’t surrender a set, Williams didn’t even lose a game, sweeping his opponent 6-0, 6-0.
“Going into Lewis, we kind of thought they’d be a little tougher,” Williams said. “We heard about them and saw their scores online, so we were kind of mentally like, ‘All right, they’re going to be a tough team, so we have to come out swinging.’ We did, and we did pretty well, but I don’t think I’ve ever beaten a guy 6-0, 6-0 before.”
The next day, in WSU’s 8-1 victory over MSU-Mankato, Williams accomplished something else he hadn’t done before.
Williams defeated the Mavericks’ John Julian, who defeated the WSU senior twice last season without dropping a set. This time around, however, after dropping the first set 7-5, Williams stormed back to defeat the MSU sophomore 6-3 in the second set before sealing the victory with a 10-8 win in the tiebreaker.
“Last year I got beat by him twice — he just kind of handled me,” Williams said. “This year I looked online and knew I was going to play him again, and I was just mentally psyched. Last year our guys said that he’s (MSU’s) true No. 1 player, so I just wanted to beat this guy to show Mankato that we’re the real thing and if they try to put their No. 1 guy down at No. 3, we can still beat them.”
Williams also teamed up with Booth and recorded an 8-1 victory in No. 2 doubles. Davidson and Lentz at No. 1 doubles, and Bishop and Rens at No. 3 doubles, also won by the same score.
Davidson (6-4, 6-1), Lentz (6-1, 6-2), Rens (6-1, 6-2) and Bishop (7-6 (10-6) 7-5) also recorded singles victories.
“(The wins) give us a lot of confidence,” WSU coach Rick Bonner said. “Confidence is definitely a huge weapon. If you step on the court with confidence, that’s like stepping on the court with a big serve or anything else; it’s just another tool in your bag that you can pull out.”
The WSU women’s team also picked up its first win of the season Saturday against Lewis, defeating the Flyers 5-4.
Holly Peltier and Erika Richae won their No. 2 doubles match 8-3, and Peltier also won her No. 5 singles match 6-4, 6-4.
Kaycee Moore and Courtney Zinter won No. 3 doubles 8-1 and, with the entire match on the line, Moore won her first collegiate singles match to give the Warriors the victory.
“Kaycee was our last match to determine the (team) match, but once we were at 4-4, Kaycee had already won the first set 6-0,” WSU coach Megan Hertz said, referring to Moore, who won 6-0, 6-2. “When we got done we said, ‘Kaycee, you just won the match for us, did you know that?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, my God. Thank God you guys didn’t tell me that before.’”
Moore and Zinter won again at No. 3 doubles (8-3) Sunday in the Warriors’ 5-4 loss to MSU-Mankato. Heather Pierce and Mary Hesterman each recorded singles victories along with teaming up for a 8-3 victory in No. 1 doubles.
Pierce won No. 1 singles 6-2, 6-3, and Hesterman won No. 2 singles 6-4, 7-5.
“I seriously think that if we were to play them the next day, we’d come out on top,” Hertz said.