Benton tennis comes out on top against Bishop LeBlond

Apr. 20—A trio of tight matches made the difference in Benton's 7-2 win over Bishop LeBlond on Monday at the Noyes Tennis Complex.

The contest brought the Cardinals to a .500 record on the season, something Benton (3-3) coach Bob Nash was encouraged by.

"They didn't quit. At various times throughout the year we've gotten down and haven't fought back. But we had several matches where we were down and the kids fought back," Nash said. "We're really getting some more experience and that's helping out. Obviously the weather was not very nice today, but I do think that us and LeBlond (0-7) are probably evenly matched."

The two teams met last Thursday, coming to a similarly scored 6-3 Benton victory.

The difference in the two outcomes was the singles performance of the Cardinals No. 1, freshman Sutton Redemer.

Six duals into the season, Redemer had yet to win a match. That changed against LeBlond on Monday, as he pulled off a nailbiting 9-8 tiebreaker victory over LeBlond's Mason Kovac.

"Well, this is my first singles win of the season and all I wanted was to just win," Redemer said. "(I was) just focusing on hitting the ball and getting it in."

After a season of trials and tribulations to this point, Nash was excited to finally see Redemer prove himself.

"I'm really proud of him. I shouldn't say he's struggled, but he's a freshman who is playing at the No. 1 spot and being put into that position as a freshman is difficult," he said. "The last few matches he's been playing better, so that speaks a lot for him and the future that he has."

Benton also received plenty of support down the roster en route to securing the victory. No. 2 Trey Mull pulled off a tight victory of his own over LeBlond's Kaiden Baer, winning 9-7 in singles play. Ethan Colwell, Christian Shelton and Ethan Duncan all won their matches, as well.

LeBlond's two victories came via a forfeit in singles play and an 8-6 victory by Kovac and Baer over Redemer and Colwell in doubles.

LeBlond has yet to win a game this season, with their two losses to Benton being their tightest matches of the season. Despite the loss, coach Jackson Gwinn was still happy with the effort.

"I thought we did a lot better in doubles today. As a team we did a lot better. In singles we had a couple of tight matches that really could have gone either way," Gwinn said. "It was 2-7, but easily could have been flipped in the other direction. Overall it was positive, can't be too disappointed."

Levi Smith can be reached at levi.smith@newspressnow.com.