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MHS tennis captures 5-4 win over Legacy

Garrick Hodge/MDN Minot High’s Peyton Huss lifts a forehand during a high school tennis match Tuesday at Hammond Park in Minot.

All season long, Minot High boys tennis coach Scott DeLorme has said Legacy is the team to beat in the region.

The Magi put themselves into that same category with a 5-4 conference victory over Legacy Thursday at Hammond Park.

“We were fortunate to escape with a 5-4 win over Legacy in a match that finished under the lights,” DeLorme said. “We’ve now been able to sneak out back-to-back one-point victories against a very good Legacy team. We were well aware this would be a full team effort coming into the match and that’s exactly what it proved to be.”

In the first two singles matches of the day, Legacy quickly took a 2-0 match lead.

“In singles, we got strong singles play from our entire lineup, but Legacy’s top two players are probably the best two players in the region and they proved that again,” DeLorme said. “Connor Templeton battled Michael Janes to a very close first set before having to retire halfway through the second due to a minor illness. Mason Diehl lost to Bradley Moylan at 2 singles, but again proved he could be competitive with every game a battle and the set score probably wasn’t a direct reflection of how tight the match was throughout.”

MHS picked up its first win at No. 3 singles thanks to a strong match from Charlie Wentz.

“At three singles, Charlie Wentz continues to play very well for us as he is starting to get back into the form that saw him play number one for us last year,” DeLorme said. “He had been struggling with consistency early on in the year, but we thought he maybe turned a corner last weekend in Fargo and he carried it into his match (Tuesday).”

Minot continued to get singles wins from the bottom of its lineup.

“At five singles, Zach Diehl got a straight set win,” DeLorme said. “Zach is in the midst of a very nice couple of weeks of tennis for us and he continued that today. Zach is extremely skilled and has great hands and was able to use that combination to overwhelm Robert Modin at number five.

“At 6 singles, Rory Taney again played well for us getting us the first point of the day. Rory has been very good for us now for about three weeks and he is proving he’s capable of beating anyone he plays. Rory has become as reliable as anyone on our team and he’s nice to have at the bottom of our lineup.”

Templeton and Wentz won their doubles match and Legacy took the No. 2 doubles match, leaving the outcome in the hands of No. 3 doubles.

“With the match tied at four, we moved it to the stadium courts as it got dark by then,” DeLorme said. “After dropping the first set, Peyton Huss and Gage Jaeger made some great adjustments to offset Legacy’s aggressiveness. A 6-0 second set win set up a dramatic third set where the teams traded the first six games and the score was tied at 3. A deuce point at 3-3 went our way to take a 4-3 lead before finishing the 3rd set 6-3 for a 5-4 team win. These two knew what was at stake and they found a new level of play and let their competitiveness take over.”

MHS moved to 2-0 in conference play and 8-2 overall. The team is back in action on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on the road against Bismarck High.

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