Durango High School’s boys tennis team had a memorable home opener Saturday morning.
Not only did the Demons win their first and only home matchup of the year, but they did so by beating Fruita Monument High School for the first time in as long as anybody on the team could remember, 4 matches to 3.
“It’s been forever since we’ve gotten by Fruita,” Durango head coach Dave Weisfeldt said. “They’re usually very deep, but our guys came out ready to play, matched up well, got out ahead early and played phenomenal tennis.”
If anyone in attendance was a little sleepy for the 9 a.m. start, they were quickly woken up by the boom coming off the racket of Demons No. 1 singles player Fred Edwards.
Edwards, a junior at Bayfield High School, breezed through Fruita’s Jackson Cesark (6-0, 6-0) in about 30 minutes to put his team ahead early.
Durango’s No. 2 singles player Alijah Konikowski followed suit with a 6-3, 6-0 win against Fruita’s Brandon Keller.
Already ahead 2-0, the No. 2 doubles team of Amon Ledger-Swenson and Nick Chaney-Roberts put another win on the board for the Demons, taking their match 6-3, 6-2.
Fruita faced a tough task, having played at Montezuma-Cortez the night before, and took awhile to get settled in. When they did, they did some damage. Durango No. 3 singles player Jake Beekman lost a hard fought third set tiebreaker 6-1, 3-6, 14-12 to Fruita’s Jon Blair in what was the most riveting match of the day.
Fruita’s No. 1 doubles team of Peyton Harmon and Brandon Lovato took care of Durango’s Will Downs and Micah Hwang 7-5, 6-0.
When the Demons’ No. 3 doubles team of Ian Osby and Tommy Roberts put away their opponents, Durango clinched the all important fourth win of the day.
The final match, a 7-5, 2-6, 14-10 win for Fruita’s Jon Bishop and Garrett Morse over the gritty team of Luke Meyer and Eno Ulshafer, was inconsequential.
“It was sweet to win the first and only home match,” said Edwards, son of Paul and Vivian Edwards. “Fruita is good. We haven’t beaten them in a really long time and to beat them here – that’s big.”
The win Saturday was the first for Durango this year, as it lost to a juggernaut Steamboat Springs team to open the season. Although it was a tough start for the Demons, there’s a long way to go and they bounced back like good teams should.
“A few of those Front Range teams really exposed some of our weaknesses,” Weisfeldt said. “We worked all week on being more aggressive, moving to the net, taking more risks, and the guys seem more comfortable executing that in the matches. That’s what I’m really excited to see because what we’re doing in practice is what we’re starting to do in the matches, and that’s very encouraging.”
Next up for Durango is a Sept. 25 dual match in Grand Junction.
jfries@durangoherald.com
