McCallie controls close matches, beats Baylor in tennis

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Tuesday afternoon, the "swing" matches just went McCallie's way.

The Blue Tornado won the first of two tennis matches this season against city rival Baylor at Baylor, 6-1. McCallie (4-1) was 3-1 in three-set matches and won all three tiebreakers three days after their runner-up finish in the Rotary Invitational.

"We won a lot of close matches today," McCallie coach Eric Voges said. "I felt good about how we performed in doubles, but even after Conner [O'Brien] and Turner [Voges] won their singles matches, the match could have gone either way."

McCallie took two of three doubles matches for a 1-0 edge headed into singles, and then O'Brien and Voges won in straight sets at No. 6 and No. 2 singles, respectively. The Tornado secured the match win when Taylor Burgen rallied from down a break in the third set to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Cody Gubin and Luke Orthner had the other wins for McCallie.

"I thought we we a little more aggressive in doubles today," Coach Voges said. "Playing all of the matches over the weekend helps, but Baylor's good and we're good, and these matches could have gone either way."

Cooper Long had the Red Raiders' singles victory and teamed with Barrett Schock to win at No. 3 doubles.

"With all the three-setters, we could have easily won the match 4-3," Baylor coach Philip Johneon said. "We know how close we were, but McCallie was just a little better today. Next time we're going to have to fight harder and refuse to lose."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6311. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.