MORGANTOWN — The 2024 high school tennis season is underway and an early-season MoHawk matchup was on the docket in Westover Saturday evening inside the Westview Tennis Facility. The Morgantown boys defeated University 5-2.
“Seeing our boys in a battle early in the season shines a light on their strengths and areas of opportunity,” MHS coach Sam Hall said. “Additionally, it opens their eyes to the hard work that lies ahead. With new leadership and partners, we are trying to settle into ‘match mode.’”
The evening began with the doubles matches. Morgantown’s Wyatt Abbitt and Max Chen faced off with Kalman Nagy and Andrew McClellan from UHS.
The match was tight early on at one game each before Abbitt and Chen took five straight games to pull ahead 6-1. The Hawks responded well and patiently worked the next two games in their favor to trim the deficit to 6-3.
MHS had a response of its own though, and the Mohigan duo rallied behind some strong serving to win the next two games and take the first match of the evening 8-3, giving their team a 1-0 lead.
The second doubles match was evenly played throughout, with some long rallies and momentum swinging between the two teams like the ball being hit back and forth.
Morgantown’s Steven Tian and Solas Chhin-Kreiner eventually won the match 8-6 over Trace McLavin and Ryan Minchau of UHS, in what was a close battle between the two teams.
MHS took the third doubles match as Max Warner and Ronan Rogers defeated UHS’ Andrew Rossana and Sebastian Duenas 8-1 and increased its lead to 3-0.
A highly competitive match in No. 1 singles saw Abbitt and Nagy battle it out with the UHS freshman coming out on top 8-3 and securing the first point in the match for UHS.
McClellan then defeated Chen 9-7 in a very competitive contest and UHS pulled the overall score to 3-2.
But the Mohigans closed the match strong with Larry Du defeating McLaren of UHS 8-4 and Chhin-Kreiner downing Rossana 8-1, giving MHS a 5-2 win.
“Although we lost the match, I was very proud of the effort and heart,” UHS coach Tom McClellan said. “Playing a good team like Morgantown early in the year is important because it allows us to truly see our strengths and weaknesses.”
Each team will now look ahead to next week as the Regional Rumble comes to Morgantown with eight schools bringing both boys and girls teams for a three-day event beginning on Thursday.
