It was seven up and seven down for Durango’s boys tennis team Thursday afternoon.

The Demons followed up last week’s huge win against Fruita Monument by sweeping the combined team of Hotchkiss and Paonia 7-0.

“We had a long bus ride, so it took a little time to shake the rust off and get our legs going,” said Durango head coach Dave Weisfeldt in a phone interview with The Durango Herald on Thursday. “It was good to see a lot of the guys recover quickly and get it into gear.”

It didn’t take long for Durango’s big lefty, Fred Edwards, to get it into gear. The Demons’ No. 1 singles player overpowered his opponent once again with a dominant serve and precision returns en route to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Luke Yerion.

Durango’s No. 2 and No. 3 singles players had a some difficulty getting past their opponents but got the job done.

Alijah Konikowski grinded out a 6-4, 6-4 win over Enoch Krupp. No. 3 singles player Jake Beekman avenged a third-set tiebreaker loss earlier in the week with a 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, (10-7) third-set tiebreaker win on Thursday.

“Those No. 2 and No. 3 games were really intense,” said Weisfeldt. “Alijah really played hard, and it was good to see Jake pull his match out after losing the tiebreaker last time.”

The doubles teams went unblemished as well.

No. 1 doubles team of Will Downs and Micah Hwang came back to win 7-5, 6-1 after falling behind early. Nick Chaney-Roberts and new teammate Boyd Matheson cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Quentin Varner and Zach Sinai, while Ian Osby and Tommy Rodgers overwhelmed their opponents 6-0, 6-0.

Durango’s No. 4 doubles team of Luke Meyer and Eno Ulshafer won by default, but when the coaches decided to have an opposing No. 1 and No. 2 doubles team up to play again, the Demon team came away victorious. “We have a tough tournament coming up in Grand Junction,” added Weisfeldt. “We did well (Thursday) as a group, and we’ll get back at it (Friday).”

jfries@durangoherald.com