After the Signal Mountain girls defeated Red Bank on Wednesday, tennis coach Keith Dressler looked to his team and proclaimed, “Everybody will be back tomorrow.”
He was referring to the return of three starters — two from a trip to Washington, D.C., as well as Kelly Cassidy, who returns from injury. But the team hasn’t trailed off much in their absence as the Lady Eagles won 5-4 over the Lady Lions to improve to 4-1 on the year.
“We have good depth,” Dressler — himself a fill-in for sick head coach Susannah Cook — said. “The girls we have are good, but also team-oriented.”
The Signal Mountain boys made it a clean sweep, defeating Red Bank 5-4.
The Lady Eagles led 4-2 after singles, getting wins from Danielle Linhart, Jennifer Arnold, Shelby O’Quinn and Mackenzie Eschmann.
Linhart and Natalie Palmer sealed the team victory with a win at No.1 doubles.
“We preach to the girls to just play to their ability and not worry about wins and losses,” Dressler said. “If we do that, things will work out.”
Red Bank coach Glen Wagner was visibly disappointed after his Lady Lions fell to 5-1 on the young season. Ivory Conley and Megan Long won in singles, while the team of Amy Metcalf and Kristen Camp, and the pairing of Claire Cox and Danielle Moore each had wins in doubles.
“We dropped some matches at some spots where I thought we could win,” he said.