Wildcat Tennis Takes Down MICDS The Cats had an amazing victory over MICDS for the first time in years.

Drew Cahill Staff Writer

Westminster tennis has always been pretty good at tennis, but for while the team has been missing one thing: A win over MICDS. MICDS is a very tough tennis team that has dominated the court for years. This year it was different. Despite losing 5 players after last season, the Wildcat tennis team is looking great at the beginning of this season. They had a 6-3 sounding win versus Chaminade, and then turned their attention to MICDS.

Knowing that beating MICDS’s top 2 players would be hard in singles, Sophomore Alan Walker and Senior Tyler Collison knew that they had to capitalize in doubles. Unfortunately, Collison broke his strings in warmups and was forced to play the match with a racket that was not his. Despite the setback, the two played well together, eventually tying the game at 8-8 and heading into a tie-breaker. This was a huge win for the Cats in doubles because both Collison and Walker ended up losing tough matches in singles.

Freshman Owen Legters and junior Drew Cahill also teamed up to play a great doubles match. Out of the gate, Cahill was not playing his best tennis, and the duo was down 2-6. Since the matches end when one team wins 8 games, Legters and Cahill had to lock in. They gained momentum after winning a couple games in a row and didn’t look back, winning five straight to lead 7-6. After giving up one game, the duo finished the match taking two games and winning 9-7 in a great comeback victory. Every match counted for the Cats, so this was a must-win match. The comeback seemed improbable, but not impossible.

Calvin VanHeest played a long singles match. It was back and forth with both VanHeest and his opponent playing very well. In the end, VanHeest won by staying consistent. Much like how Tyler Collison plays, VanHeese holds back on hitting the ball extremely hard, but he will get the ball in everytime. He is athletic, so he gets to every ball on the court and seemingly effortlessly hits back over the net. It’s very frustrating to face players like these because it is almost impossible to beat them. Calvin’s win played a huge role in beating MICDS.

Freshman Noah Suthar won a big singles match for the Wildcats. He faced an opponent with a speedy serve. Suthar battled with his opponent and won handily. His match brought the total WCA wins to four which tied MICDS. Noah is a freshman who quickly rose in the rankings. His forehand is immaculate and his confidence on the court is unmatched. The Cats are going to look to him to win some big matches later in the season.

With the team versus team score tied at 4-4 it was up to Mason Wittock to win it and clinch the victory for the Wildcats. He took an early loss with a group of MICDS students chirping him from the sideline. However, he put the chatter into the back of his mind and locked in. Eventually beating his opponent to beat MICDS. Victory was sweet for Wittock in that environment and it gave him tons of confidence. “It meant a lot to win and look over to all the MICDS fans knowing that we had beat them,” replied Wittock when asked about the match. As Westminster continues on they will rely on wins from players out of the top five like Mason.

This was an overall team victory. Many people will say that tennis is an individual sport and that there is no team aspect bigger than doubles. While this may be true for the professionals, highschool tennis is a huge team sport. Beating the other team’s number one player means nothing if they lose the rest of their matches. Beating MICDS is a huge win for the Wildcats as they start the season off 2-0 and look to expand on that.