The Talawanda boy’s tennis team overcame 40 mile per hour wind gusts to defeat Southwest Ohio Conference (SWOC) rival Harrison 3-2 at home on April 17.

It wasn’t only the wind but also a bit of rust that the Brave dealt with in defeating the Wildcats. Recent weather-related issues had forced the cancellation of six of the 11 team’s scheduled matches.

“Harrison is our biggest rival so whoever wins today will have the driver’s seat going into the tournament.” said Head coach Silberstein about the SWOC tournament scheduled for May 2nd.

First doubles led the team to victory in a third set tiebreaker, with sophomore Connor Pulaski and freshman Andy Page securing a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 win.

During singles play Talawanda’s Milo Flaspohler defeated Harrison’s Aiden Jacob 6-0, 6-0.. With strong ball placement, the Brave junior dominated his match, targeting his opponent’s feet and sending him scrambling to reach his drop shots.

“I’ve been working on my topspin backhand,” Flaspohler explained, but due to the wind, he wasn’t able to use this offensive shot. Instead, he resorted to slicing his shots to control the ball.

Senior Ryan Hohn, playing at third singles, leveraged the wind to his advantage by employing an effective spin on his forehand shots to secure the win with a score of 6-0, 6-3.

“He’s got a great tennis IQ,” said Coach Silberstein in reference to Hohn’s game.

Second singles player Ari Delvecchio encountered a setback when he struggled to maintain authority over his game, resulting in a 6-1, 1-6, 0-6 loss to Harrison’s Keagan Lockhart.

“I had a problem a lot last year just losing my cool, so I try to just clear my head and not focus on my mistakes and instead just move from point to point,” Lockhart shared following his win.

With the win, the Brave improved its overall record to 3-3 (2-0 SWOC).