Tennis

It came down to victories by the number three doubles matches in both boys and girls for Ramstein to eke out 5-4 tennis triumphs over Wiesbaden on the Ramstein courts Oct. 19.

With the scores tied, Reed Gallagher, who had won his singles match earlier in the day, was joined by Adam Hanks to win the deciding match 8-2 over Wiesbaden’s Connor Buchheit and Jaden Anderson. On the girls’ side, Kaiya Hernandez and Ashleigh Emery beat Isabela Bishop and Hannah Neumann 8-5.

Both of Ramstein’s number one seeds were defeated. Conner Markus fell to Zachary Keener 10-8 in a super tiebreaker. Kassiana Von Eichen lost to Charlotte Kordonowsky 2-6, 0-6. Dougie Allison, shown sizing up a return shot, lost to Hope Goodwin in number 2 singles. But it was the numbers four, five and six players who pulled the Royals out of the fire with Austin Emery, Collin Ritter and Gallagher winning their singles matches for the boys and Isabella Guzaldo at number three singles, along with Madalin Svan, Lydia Woodfork and Hernandez winning their matches decisively. The number three duos also saved the day in doubles after both the numbers one and two were defeated.

“The matches today were fantastic. Both Coach Rooney and I were amazed at how close the competition was between our boys and girls,” said Coach Alfredo Rios. “Both teams played their hearts out. This was a fantastic way to finish the regular season. Looking forward to the European Championships. “

Kaiserslautern took a rare two site road trip. On Friday in Stuttgart, the rain wiped out or shortened some of the matches. In the singles matches, the boys won 4-2 with all doubles matches rained out while the girls lost 5-3. Defending European champ Aiva Schmitz stayed undefeated with straight 6-0 sets over the Panthers Violet Maria-Williams.

“We were disappointed we couldn’t finish the matches from the perspective of getting prepared for the Europeans, but overall some good performances,” said Coach Gabriell Horton.

On Saturday in Vilseck, the Raiders rolled to a 9-0 dominating victory. Schmitz again was perfect, as was number one singles boys player William Alsing. Devon Holly and Olaitan Powdar stayed unbeaten in boys doubles with straight set shutouts.

Both Ramstein and Kaiserslautern are competing in the European Championships in Wiesbaden this week with final contests tomorrow.