Fairfield falls to Fort Madison

FAIRFIELD - In the first tennis match for Fairfield since 2019, the boys were defeated 7-2 by Fort Madison Thursday at home.

After the long delay, it was nice to actually have the opportunity to be outside playing competitive tennis in front of fans.

'The opposing team's coach, Dean Hogan, was very complimentary on the overall sportsmanship and character of both teams, which means a lot to me as a coach,” Trojans coach Michael Holt said.

The Bloodhounds are the reigning Southeast Conference and district champs.

'They have a very strong team this year and even though the overall score doesn't reflect it, our boys showed incredible character and perseverance taking most of our games deep,” Holt said. 'It was obvious that our boys were a little tense to begin with, it has been two years since our upperclassman have seen competitive match play.”

Holt said two sophomore players, Jeremy Goodale and Garrett Flanagan, who have never played at this level before, showed great promise. 'They are both doing exceptionally well.”

Flanagan had a hand in the two wins for the Trojans. He won his singles match 6-0, 6-2 and teamed with Jace Hannes for a doubles victory by almost the same score, 6-2, 6-0.

'We seem to be evenly matched from one through six and for this early in the season, I was impressed with the quality of play,” Holt said. 'There were some really good rallys both in singles and in doubles.”

The Trojans are looking forward to meeting up with Fort Madison again in a few weeks with several more matches under their belt.

Match scores:

Singles

No. 1 Blake Holden lost 6-2, 6-0

No. 2: Jeremy Goodale lost 6-0, 6-0

No. 3: Brecken Courtright lost 7-6 (7-4 tiebreaker), 6-4

No. 4: Tristan Paton lost 6-4; 6-2

No. 5: Cameron Harvey lost 2-6; 2-6

No. 6: Garrett Flanagan won 6-0; 6-2

Doubles

No. 1: Blake Holden/Jeremy Goodale lost 6-0, 6-1

No. 2: Brecken Courtright and Tristan Paton lost 6-2; 7-6 (tiebreaker 7-5)

No. 3: Garrett Flanagan/Jace Hannes won 6-2, 6-0