Trinity Lutheran boys’ tennis coach Brad Emerson said his players need to keep the pressure on opponents when they get a lead.

“They are a good, solid team, but we left too many points out there on the court. We didn’t play smart tennis a lot of the time. We had leads in three of the matches, then we just gave it up,” he said after the Cougars fell 5-0 to Southwestern (Hanover) at home on Friday.

The Cougars won at least one game in every set except at No. 2 singles where Reed Roeder lost 6-1, 6-0 to Braxton Lewis.

Roeder, a freshman, said this was his first time playing singles after he had played doubles in the earlier matches.

Jack Stuckwisch lost 6-1, 6-4 to Braden Helton at No. 1 singles, and Ross Bevers fell 6-1, 6-2 to Luke Morrow at No. 3 singles.

“Jack had his guy cramping up in the second set and he didn’t move the ball around enough on him,” Emerson said. “He could have won by default if he would have just moved that kid a little bit more and got him running.

“He just kind of got complacent, tried to hit shots back and the kid wasn’t putting anything away. When you’ve got a kid down and is hurt like that, you’ve got to really make him suffer, and he just didn’t do that in the second set.

“I think if he would have won that set it probably have been a big difference there.”

Trinity’s doubles teams both came out strong.

Nathen Finke and Jonathan Neawedde lost 6-4, 6-2 to Brady Cook and Talon Wynn at No. 1, and Will Gausman and Luke Schepman dropped a 7-5, 6-2 match to Max Joseph and Colton Deputy at No. 2.

Emerson said, “You have got to get your first serve in doubles. That helps, and we didn’t close the net very well a lot of the time. We stood there waiting for the ball to come to us, and then we ended up swinging and when you don’t move your feet, especially at the net, it compromises your direction a lot. The closer to the net, the more angle you get.

“In doubles, we definitely have to work on closing and making sure that we’re confident with our shots. A lot of the time we just second-guess ourselves. They must understand that they’re going to make mistakes, they are not perfect.

“When you’ve got a team down, you’ve got to close. We just are not doing that. We’ve got to make sure we are closing out sets when we have them, and then play to the level that I know we are capable of playing. I know we can play better.”

The match left the Cougars 2-2 and began busy period for them as they went to Paoli on Saturday, and will travel to Clarksville Tuesday, host Waldron Thursday, host Madison Friday and compete in the Southern Indiana Conference tournament Saturday at Hanover College.

Southwestern 5, Trinity Lutheran 0

No. 1 singles- Braden Helton (S) def. Jack Stuckwisch 6-1, 6-4

No. 2 singles- Braxton Lewis (S) def. Reed Roeder 6-1, 6-0.

No. 3 singles- Luke Morrow (S) def. Ross Bevers, 6-1, 6-2

No. 1 doubles- Brady Cook-Talon Wynn (S) def. Nathan Finke-Jonathan Neawedde 6-4, 6-2

No. 2 doubles-Max Joseph-Colton Deputy def. Will Gausman-Luke Schepman 7-5, 6-2.