The Alliance Bulldog Boys Tennis Team competed in a Tennis Triangular on Aug. 25, where Gering and Scottsbluff were also in attendance.
The triangular was the Bulldogs’ first match of their season, and they had a bit of pregame jitters, Coach Scott Mills noted.
“Well, we kind of had a rough start, but you know for the first, for getting the jitters out of the way, I’m not totally disappointed. A few things I saw, I figured we should’ve known to do different, but like I said, first game jitters. I’m not upset about the way things turned out. Some of the games were better than I thought they were going to be, and some of them were not as good as I was hoping for, but I think it looked good for a first game start,” said Mills.
The doubles No. 3 match had a freshman Tony Escamilla who was playing for a total of two and a half weeks before the match. Even with being so new to the sport, he was learning quick and was teamed up with senior Abe Gomez who showed Escamilla some tips and tricks as they competed.
They were down 0-3 and started to make a comeback during their match, but ended up falling short to Scottsbluffs’ Thatcher Thomalla and Mathew Hafner with a final score of 8-6.
“We could’ve definitely done better. We played a little too safe. We should’ve played a little more aggressive from the start. We let them get a 0-3 lead on us. Probably shouldn’t have done that, but we fought really hard today,” said Gomez.
After the doubles matches came the singles matches, and Mills was hoping that the kids would perform.
“Singles will be the tell-tale coming up here. We will see how that goes. I’m confident though, singles are some of these kids’ thing. I’m looking forward to it,” said Mills.
The Bulldogs were defeated by Scottsbluff for their first sets of the day, with a score of 8-1, where Carver Hauptman and Kysen Walker were the only ones who got a win in a doubles match against Scottsbluff’s Joey Escamilla and Cortez Palamo with a score of 2-8.
“I would say that match went very well, after the first early nerves were worked out, my partner Kysen and I played very well and the few things that we need to work on are simple fixes that will work themselves out as we play together more,” said Hauptman.
Alliance shook off their pregame jitters by time they took on Gering and put on a performance achieving a perfect record of 9-0.
“We played much better against Gering. I think we worked through the nerves and calmed down quite a bit. I saw the guys play smarter and with much more purpose than we did against Scottsbluff. The nerves are to be expected in the first few matches. The way they responded was very impressive. I think we are off to a good start and I am looking forward to continuing the momentum,” said Mills.
The following are the results for the Varsity Boys Tennis Triangular:
Scottsbluff defeated Alliance 8-1.
No. 1 Doubles: Barrett Frank and Kian Blomstedt (Scottsbluff) defeated Evan Hadden and Sonny Gonzalez (Alliance) 8-1.
No. 2 Doubles: Carver Hauptman and Kysen Walker (Alliance) defeated Joey Escamilla and Cortez Palamo (Scottsbluff) 2-8.
No. 3 Doubles: Thatcher Thomalla and Mathew Hafner (Scottsbluff) defeated Abe Gomez and Tony Escamilla (Alliance) 8-6.
No. 1 Singles: Barrett Frank (Scottsbluff) defeated Carver Hauptman (Alliance) 6-8.
No. 2 Singles: Kysen Walker (Alliance) defeated Kian Blomstedt (Scottsbluff) 3-8.
No. 3 Singles: Abe Gomez (Alliance) defeated Cortez Palamo (Scottsbluff) 6-8.
No. 4 Singles: Evan Hadden (Alliance) defeated Mathew Hafner (Scottsbluff) 4-8.
No. 5 Singles: Sonny Gonzalez (Alliance) defeated Thatcher Thomalla (Scottsbluff) 3-8.
No. 6 Singles: Tony Escamilla (Alliance defeated Joey Escamilla (Scottsbluff) 7-9.
Alliance defeated Gering 9-0.
No. 1 Doubles: Evan Hadden and Sonny Gonzalez (Alliance defeated Isiah Murillo and Noah Macias (Gering) 8-3.
No. 2 Doubles: Caver Hauptman and Kysen Walker (Alliance) defeated Aidyn McDonald and Wyatt Soule (Gering) 8-0.
No. 3 Doubles: Abe Gomez and Tony Escamilla (Alliance) defeated Bridger Wallace and Jaedyn Morales (Gering) 8-1.
No. 1 Singles: Carver Hauptman (Alliance) defeated Isiah Murillo (Gering) 8-6.
No. 2 Singles: Kysen Walker (Alliance) defeated Noah Macias (Gering) 8-0.
No. 3 Singles: Abe Gomez (Alliance) defeated Guri Hayer (Gering) 8-1.
No. 4 Singles: Evan Hadden (Alliance) defeated Patrick Sauter (Gering) 8-4.
No. 5 Singles: Sonny Gonzalez (Alliance) defeated Wyatt Soule (Gering) 8-6.
No. 6 Singles: Tony Escamilla (Alliance) defeated Jaedyn Maorales (Gering) 8-1.