By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC - Just when it looked as if the Dowagiac varsity tennis team was going to pick up its first victory of the season, Niles slammed the door on the Chieftains.
Dowagiac got off to a quick start, winning two flights and leading in the other two as the No. 3 and No. 4 singles and doubles teams opened up competition.
The Vikings, who had won two straight matches coming into the Big 16 Conference West Division contest, rallied to win at No. 3 singles and No. 3 doubles to square the match at 2-2.
From there it was nip and tuck with neither team holding much of an advantage.
In the end, Niles won three out of the four singles matches and split the doubles matches for a 5-3 victory.
Dowagiac coach Curtis Partee was less than happy with his team's performance against the Vikings.
Hoff was the lone winner in singles (No. 3) for the Chieftains as he defeated Nick Neumann, 6-3 and 6-1.
Carlson lost at No. 1 to Ari Fernandez, 4-6 and 3-6.
The Vikings' victories in doubles came at No. 3 where Jon Poole and Skyler Mudd defeated Kyle Kowalski and Henry Krohne, 4-6, 6-0 and 6-3 and at No. 2 were Jonathan Smith and Jeff Pugh won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 over Jon Woosley and Aaron Wilson.