Highland boys tennis team falls in Mississippi Valley Conference match at Mascoutah

Having success against Mississippi Valley Conference foe Mascoutah has been a tall order for the Highland boys tennis team in recent seasons.

Thursday, April 14, presented another challenge for the Bulldogs netters.

Despite winning in half the singles flights, HHS was unable to win against the Indians talented doubles pairs and eventually dropped a 6-3 decision to the host Indians.

“They’re a pretty good team and I think we’re pretty even with them, but they just outplayed us — especially in doubles — and gave us some tough matchups (there),” Highland coach Matt Pellock said.

Highland enjoyed some early success in the singles matches as Alex Roach won at No. 2 singles in three sets — 6-4, 3-6, 13-11.

Ben Mitchell also had a good day as he won at No. 5 singles, taking his match 1-6, 7-4, 10-4. Jack Meyer rounded out the singles winners for the Bulldogs at No. 6 singles with a 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 victory.

HHS (8-5) lost at No. 1 singles, No. 3 singles, and No. 4 singles.

In the doubles flights, the Bulldogs worked hard but Mascoutah’s talented and experienced three doubles pairs were just a little too much.

Mascoutah claimed wins at No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 doubles.

“They (Mascoutah) have a team that went to state last year in doubles and those guys are back this year. And they have a freshman that is playing No. 1 (singles) for them and he’s a good player,” Pellock said.

Highland returns to action at 4 p.m. Monday, April 18, with an MVC road match at Waterloo.

Next week will feature just the Waterloo match before the season’s second half ramps up and HHS will begin its push toward the end of the regular season.

“The bulk of our matches are ahead of us, so we’ve got room to improve as long as (some of) these tournaments don’t get rained out and we’ve had pretty decent luck on that so far,” Pellock said.

This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 2:00 PM.