Braves pick up conference win over Cougars

BROWNSTOWN

The Brownstown Central tennis team evened its Mid-Southern Conference record at 3-3 by blanking North Harrison 5-0 Thursday afternoon.

Olivia Hackman, Riley Roberts and the No. 1 doubles team of Carly Brown and Rachel Adkins opened up 4-1 leads in their first sets and won in straight sets.

Hackman, at No. 1 singles, was the first player off the courts with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Ellie Cassidy, and Roberts followed with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Marie Meyer at No. 3 singles.

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Brown and Adkins topped Zoe Adkins and Elle Hoene 6-2, 6-4.

Braves coach Erik Stangland said he liked the way those girls started out strong as the team moved to 6-6 overall.

“We got off to a much better start,” he said. “We won the first game on the three singles positions, and that helped a lot just getting the first game of the match. Olivia looked especially nice where she wasn’t working hard, but she was hitting good shots.”

Maggie Hogan, at No. 2 singles, and Abbie Reynolds and Hannah Hackman at No. 2 doubles, had to go three sets to post their wins.

Reynolds and Hackman topped Emily Bowen and Olivia Wise 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, while Hogan had to battle McKenna Pearson for over 2½ hours to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

“Maggie just played all the way through,” Stangland said. “She struggled in the first set and was able to get the second and third so that was a good win for her. No. 2 doubles struggled in the first set and they came back and looked strong.”

The Braves will play Corydon Central for another MSC match tonight.

“It was a good night,” Stangland said. “We needed it. We’ve got another conference match against Corydon (today) that we feel good about and (a win) would get us a lot better position in the conference and the season.”