A win was nice, but for Niles tennis coach Jill Weber it was more about getting on the court and getting the season started.

The Vikings defeated cross-town rival Brandywine 7-1 in the opening match of the season at Niles High School Wednesday.

The Bobcats and Vikings were then scheduled to take on Mishawaka, which did not have a full roster of players. Indiana teams play three singles and two doubles matches, where in Michigan tennis teams play four singles and four doubles flights.

“It’s always exciting to get our first match under way,” Weber said. “They performed really well. We had a scrimmage yesterday (Tuesday) against Edwardsburg and that went really well. So we’re pretty excited to be moving forward.”

Brandywine coach David Sidenbender agreed that Wednesday’s matches were important from the standpoint of getting on the court and seeing the players in actual competition.

“We only had two and a half practices basically because of the weather and this has been good to play a couple of matches today,” he said. “They will get a nice judge of where we’re at and what we need to do. It gives them a good idea of what to expect in a match.”

Niles swept the doubles flights, which included a forfeit at No. 4 doubles.

Brandywine got its only win at No. 4 singles where Kyle Duncan outlasted Rob Lundberg 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3 in a match that lasted more than two hours.

It also took over two hours for the Vikings’ Nick Zeigert to defeat Chance Smith 7-5 and 6-2 at No. 2 singles.

 

Brandywine…1

Niles…7

Singles

1. Brad Miller (N) d. Mike Robbins 6-2, 6-2; 2. Nick Zeigert (N) d. Chance Smith 7-5, 6-2; 3. Michael Geiger (N) d. Tanner Bourdon 6-1, 6-1; 4. Kyle Duncan (BW) d. Rob Lundberg 3-6, 6-4, 6-3

 

Doubles

1. Alec Brown-Matt Miller (N) d. Brian Kline-Jordan Hunt 6-0, 6-0; 2. Gevanta Nichols-Brent McGowen (N) d. Lucas Hoffman-Alex Brooks 6-4, 6-3; 3. Trevor Kizer-Nick Bortowski (N) d. Chad Brooks-Nate Hechtl 6-0, 6-0; 4. Isaac Rosenthal-Matt Lee (N) win by forfeit