The Trenton Bulldogs fought tooth and nail, but came up three wins short of pushing their winning streak to five, falling to the Kirksville Tigers on Monday afternoon 6-3. Â The loss drops the Bulldogs record in duals to 4-2, while pushing Kirksville to 9-1.
Trenton’s victories in singles play were from Kade Ockenfels by 8-2 final over Garrett Johnson, and Gabe Swann, an 8-4 winner over Charles Fraser. In order to get the team win, Trenton needed to find three other victories. Â One came from the doubles team of Wyatt Neal and Gabe Swann, who won a competitive match with Reza Hamidi and Charles Fraser of KHS, 9-7.
A close loss in singles for Trenton’s Creed Houghton, in an 8-6 decision to Hamidi, began to tip the match toward the Tigers. Â Kirksville’s strong #1 singles player, Ruslan Pultz beat Nick Shields 8-love, with Bennett Hoshaw downing Jacob Davis 8-2, and James Hendler beating Wyatt Neal by an identical 8-2 score.
The #1 and #2 doubles matches had some potential to go the Bulldogs way, but Kirksville took a pair of close triumphs, as Pultz and Johnson beat Shields and Davis 8-5, while Hoshaw and Hendler beat Ockenfels and Houghton 8-6.
The schools played three JV doubles matches as part of Monday’s competition, with Kirksville taking 2 of the 3. Â Weston Otto and Jeremy Elliott of the Bulldogs took a 6-4 victory.
