NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊTippecanoe Valley's girls tennis team has beaten Manchester only once or twice in school history.

The Vikings added one more victory to that list Wednesday evening when they defeated the Squires 4-1.

"We were solid up and down the line," said Valley coach Jack Shambaugh. "This is only the second or third time we have ever beaten Manchester."

The Valley squad started the evening by winning every match in the varsity singles competition.

Carissa Parker defeated Allison Ingold at the number one spot 6-1, 6-0, and at the number two slot, Wendy Tilden beat Rachel Bushong by scores of 6-2 and 6-4. At number three singles, Valley's Abby Lewis downed Molly McWhitney 6-1, 6-1.

Manchester's lone win came at the number one doubles spot as Katrina Runkle and Carmen DeFusco defeated Tiffany Cunningham and Erin Drudge 6-2, 6-4.

"Our number one doubles team played extremely well for their first match," said Manchester coach Rachel Temme. "They are our only team with much varsity experience, and they played well."

Kyleigh Gast and Kris Sanders earned Valley's last victory of the day by winning 6-0, 6-1 over Erin Beyer and Erin Hemmig.

Both coaches agreed that experience was definitely a factor in the match last night.

"We have more experience than Manchester," said Shambaugh. "We have all but one of our varsity players back this year, and I think we showed that tonight. We hit the court and were aggressive and played well."

"We learned that we have a little fine tuning to do," said Temme. "We had a lot of nervous girls on the court. For many of them, this was their first varsity experience. We will improve as the season progresses."

Now that both teams have played their first match, Shambaugh and Temme are looking to the future.

"We took our first step forward tonight," said Shambaugh. "We gained confidence, and I hope we can build on this and improve through the season."

"For our first meet of the year we played well," said Temme. "I feel that this first experience did open some eyes. Now the girls have some idea of what others schools have as far as talent goes."

Varsity

Tippecanoe Valley 4, Manchester 1

Singles

1. Carissa Parker (V) def. Allison Ingold 6-1, 6-0

2. Wendy Tilden (V) def. Rachel Bushong 6-2, 6-4

3. Abby Lewis (V) def. Molly McWhitney 6-1, 6-1

Doubles

1. Katrina Runkle/Carmen DeFusco (M) def. Tiffany Cunningham/Erin Drudge 6-2, 6-4

2. Kyleigh Gast/Kris Sanders def. Erin Hemmig 6-0, 6-1

JV: Tippecanoe Valley 4, Manchester 1

1. Jamie Doud (V) def. Megan Keffaber, 8-6

2. Amber Harmon (V) def. Brittany Falk, 8-4

3. Jaymee McCalla (V) def. Catey Dea, 8-0

Doubles

1. Jamie Lauer/Kristen Fradette (M) def. Amy Wildermuth/Angela Weller, 8-7 (7-4)

2. Julie Studebaker/Alyssa Anglin (V) def. Linsey Hix/Ashlee Wood, 7-4

Records -ÊValley 1-0, Manchester 0-1 [[In-content Ad]]