LARWILL -Ê"We came out ready to play tonight."

Victoria Cripe, Whitko's tennis coach, summed up the tennis match against Triton Tuesday with that one statement.

Whitko had not defeated the Triton tennis team in several years, but Tuesday the Wildcats surprised the Trojans by handing them their first loss of the season, 4-1.

"They are tougher than we anticipated," said Triton coach Laura Lamaster. "They are good athletes and good, solid tennis players."

At No. 1 singles, Whitko's Aly Frantz was down 3-0 in the first set but came back to win the match 6-4, 6-4 over Triton's Joanna Blackmer.

"Our No. 1 singles lost 4-6, 4-6 in a close match," said Lamaster. "Both girls played very well. It just didn't go our way this time."

Trisha Peters recorded the second point for Whitko when she defeated Triton's Kelli Hackett 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.

Triton's lone varsity victory came at the No. 3 spot, where Jenny Berger defeated Lisa Menck in a see-saw match 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Whitko swept the doubles action as Stephanie Moore and Meghan Santter defeated Gwen Roberts and Reanna Dugard 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. At No. 2 doubles, Layne Schlosser and Jennifer Young of Triton fell to Renee Harris and Amanda Hattan 6-1, 6-4.

"We need to work on coming out strong at first and winning the first set," said Lamaster. "When we get down a set, it's hard to come back mentally. Statistics say that the person who is ahead first usually wins the match, so we want to focus on coming out of the gate quickly."

"We played pretty well tonight," said Cripe. "We came out ready to play, and that was important. I have seen a lot of improvement in our team over last year, especially in mental attitude."

Whitko won 4-1 over the Trojans in junior varsity action as well. Stacie Warner defeated Gina Longmire at No. 1 singles, and Jessica Porter defeated Sarell Fetters at the No. 3 singles spot.

Triton's only point came when Crystal Lamaster defeated Desi Meadows in No. 2 singles.

Whitko's Abby Crawford and Nicloe Timms teamed up to defeat Crystal Sellers and Sarah Shafer 7-4 while Hilary Ayres and Meghan Pressler joined forces to overcome Becca Mandhardt and Jenny Kocsis 8-4.

Whitko and Triton now sport identical 2-1 records. Whitko and Triton both hit the courts again tonight as the Wildcats host Rochester and the Trojans travel to LaVille. [[In-content Ad]]