Miners win SWIAC match

Linton-Stockton opened play in the Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference with a 4-1 victory at North Central Thursday.

This is the first season that the conference boys tennis title will be decided by dual matches and not a tournament.

"It was good to get off to a good start in the conference," said Linton-Stockton coach Brad McKinney. "It is important to win early conference matches and not have to get help from someone else.

"The conference will be competitive. North Daviess is very solid and you can't count out Bloomfield."

This was the first victory for the Miners after starting with three losses.

"It was good to get off of our losing streak," said McKinney. "This was a close match and things could have went the other way."

Seth Herndon and Kris Shipman won at singles while the doubles teams of Taylor Sloan and Cody Kocher and Tyler Ivey and Brandon Flater both prevailed.

"Maybe those close losses got us ready for this. The kids were able to dig in when they needed too," said McKinney. "All of our singles got off to good starts, but then did not close out very well.

"It was just the opposite for our doubles teams. They started slowly, but closed well. It was two different stories and we had two different things going on at opposite ends of the court. They don't want to make it easy on me."

North Central slipped to 2-2, 0-1.

The Miners (1-3, 1-0 in the SWIAC) will be at home against Northview today (Wednesday).

"We will host a sectional opponent and see where we are," said McKinney. "They are very solid from top to bottom and this will be a good early season test for us.

"A meeting in the first week of October with them will be more important than this one."

At Farmersburg

Varsity

Linton-Stockton 4, North Central 1

Singles: Seth Herndon (L) d. Austin Prechtel 6-2, 7-6 (2); Kris Shipman (L) d. Brennan Crooks 6-0, 6-2; Jaco Chrielewski (NC) d. Ben Brown 4-6, 7-5, 14-12.

Doubles: Taylor Sloan/Cody Kocher (L) d. Nolan Kinnett/Chaz Childs 4-6, 6-1, 6-1; Tyler Ivey/Brandon Flater (L) d. Chris Stamper/Michael Dougherty 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Junior Varsity

North Central 1, Linton-Stockton 0

Doubles: Dustin Boyll/Kevin Lofton (NC) d. Luke Jerrells/Mitchell Cox 8-4.