WINFIELD — Deuce was the word of the day for Iola High’s Bryan Mueller and Colby Works, who opened play Friday at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament.
In tennis, a deuce means each team is tied and must win two straight points in order to take an overall point for the match. Iola’s tennis duo and their opponents, Dutch Brownlee and Tyler Pettigrew of Wellington, had to fight for multiple points, with many going to deuce, as the first two sets in the best-of-three match went to tie-breakers.
“They were trading points each time, going point-for-point and no team wanted to lose their first match, obviously,” coach Joe Turner said. “So, I mean all we can say is it came down to who had the last advantage, who had the last serve.”
That serve went to Wellington, who downed Works and Mueller, 6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) 11-9.
The third set was a best of 10 with a team needing to win by two points.
So evenly matched were the teams — tie-breakers were necessary in all three sets — even the tie-breaker needed an extra point.
Wellington finally prevailed in the third set, 11-9, going an extra point to seal the win.
“(Our play) definitely was better than regionals,” Mueller said. “I’m proud of it even though it wasn’t enough to get us the win.”
Works wasn’t a fan of the way he had played during the match.
“That was probably my worst match of the year,” Works said. “I just think my ground strokes and forehand were not as good as they usually are. I felt like our net play let us down a little bit.”
The match took about two hours to complete.
“We’re all tired now,” Mueller said. “We just have to forget about it and move on.”
WITH THE loss, Mueller and Works must continue to battle through the consolation bracket.
The duo responded nicely in their second-round match, by defeating Nate Mohler and Tom Ajard of Biship Miege, 9-7.
Consolation matches are one set, race-to-nine format.
Mueller and Works then fell behind Jacob Murray and Matt Flynn of Andover Center, 3-0, before rallying to claim a 9-8 victory, involving another tie-breaker, won by Iola, 7-5.
Play resumes this morning at 9 o’clock at Winfield’s T.H. Vaughn Tennis Center.
A full recap will be in Monday’s Register.
