Fairfield tennis doubles up with SEC singles, doubles titles

FORT MADISON — Southeast Conference boys tennis finished up its conference season on Thursday with its conference tournament.

It was a great day for Fairfield as the Trojans picked up conference titles in both singles and doubles.

Both of Fairfield’s title winners came in the form of Ruimin Luo in singles, along with Han Wang and Austin Loria in doubles.

For Mt. Pleasant, Gavin Ross was the highest individual placer. Ross placed fifth in singles. In doubles, Phoenix Watson and Lou Schimmelpfennig placed second.

Luo had quite a dominant performance on the singles side of things.

Through his first two matches, Luo gave up just two set points, winning 6-1, 6-0 in each. The pair of wins propelled him into the championship round against Carson Ziegler of Burlington.

Luo was stellar once again, topping Ziegler 6-3, 6-2 for the conference title.

The other Trojan that competed in singles was Niko Emerson. Emerson ended with a seventh overall finish.

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He lost in his first two matches 6-1, 6-1 and 8-2 before winning the third 8-8 (1) for seventh.

As for Mt. Pleasant, Ross fell in the opening round 6-3, 6-4. He finished strong, winning two straight for fifth. In those matches, Ross was a winner 8-2 in both.

Zach Johnson was the other Panther to compete in singles.

Johnson won his first match 7-5, 6-1 (7) to earn spot against top seeded Luo. He went on to fall in that one 6-1, 6-0 before winning 10-8 in his third match of the day.

That win set Johnson up against his teammate in Ross for fifth. With Ross’s 8-2 win, Johnson had to settle for sixth.

In doubles, Han and Loria had a strong run. The pair picked up three wins on the day, 6-2, 6-4; 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0.

Mt. Pleasant’s Watson and Schimmelpfennig battled to a second-place finish in doubles. The No. 2 seeds grabbed wins of 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-4 before falling to Han and Loria in the finals.

The Panther’s Dane Cook and Sawyer Fulton placed sixth. After a 6-2, 6-0 win in the opening round, the pair lost to Han and Loria, 6-2, 6-4. They followed with yet another victory, 8-3, before falling in to the fifth place match 8-6.

For Fairfield, Ethan Cass and Rylan Anderson finished fifth. After an 6-2, 3-6 (5) loss in round one, the duo won 8-4 and 8-6 in back-to-back matches for fifth.