Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

THREE RIVERS — Despite losing the final two flights of the match, Niles assistant varsity boys’ tennis coach Matt Herm was proud of the fight the Vikings showed in a 5-3 Wolverine Conference loss at Three Rivers on Monday. 

The match score was tied 3-3 when the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches both went into a third set. 

Both schools had a great deal to celebrate in those matches as the deciding sets provided many exciting and closely-contested points. 

At No. 2 doubles, Niles’ duo of Matthew Richards and Shawn Atkins dropped a heartbreaking 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7) decision to Three Rivers’ tandem of Frederico De Godoy and Collin Mcintyre giving the hosts the league triumph.

The Wildcats’ Brady Stratton and Henry Bobell pulled out a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory over Niles’ Carson Pugh and Jacob Kujawa at No. 3 doubles. 

“We’re just really excited to see our kids keep growing as the season progresses. Sometimes its good to get into those special kinds of situations. You can learn a lot from a loss too. I was just pleased to see our team rally and there was a great deal of cheering. It was frustrating to come up short, but we’re young and we are just going to keep getting better,” said Herm, who was filling in for head coach Jill Weber on Monday.

The Vikings’ lineup in the match featured four freshmen. 

Niles earned victories at No. 1 and No. 4 doubles and its other win came at Np. 2 singles. 

Joshua Becraft and Logan Paluzzi from Niles earned a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles over Parker Bingaman and Todd Wadsworth from Three Rivers. 

The Vikings’ No. 4 duo of Gavin Dandurand and Eli Chism topped Derek and Drew Perez from Three Rivers 6-3, 6-0. 

Niles’ other win was produced by Colin Brown at No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-0 over Three Rivers’ Keagan Boring. 

At No. 1 singles, Stephen Applewhite from Niles was defeated by Three Rivers’ Alex Nowak 1-6, 2-6. 

Niles’ No. 3 singles player Abram Knight lost to Three Rivers’ Ebin Perkins 4-6. 3-6. 

Ryker Leaverton from Niles lost at No. 4 singles to Carter Fuller of Three Rivers 4-6, 4-6. 

Three Rivers head coach Mike Kupiec was pleased with the grit his Wildcats showed in coming away with the win.

“This was a great tennis match today that could’ve went either way. We were fortunate to end up with a win. We let a lot of points slip away in some of our matches, but I’m proud of our No. 2 and No. 3  doubles teams for pulling out their matches in three sets. We are a fairly young team but its been fun watching these kids grow each day,” Kupiec said. 

Niles returns home to face Vicksburg in another league match at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.