PLYMOUTH – It should have been a time to relax, have fun and enjoy a warm summer day at the Blueberry Festival. As the rides at Marshall County’s crown jewel opened just feet from the Mary Beth Hunter Tennis Complex, Warsaw left the grounds miserable after taking a tough 4-1 loss at Plymouth in a Northern Lakes Conference boys tennis dual Thursday.

In a performance Warsaw head coach Rick Orban could only describe as “flat”, the Tigers started off ice cold and never really warmed up much. Plymouth stormed to at least three-game leads on four of its five courts in the first set and never looked back.

The two Johns, Hunter at one singles and Gerard at two singles, had little trouble in putting away Colton Lind and Chris Herendeen. Hunter’s forehand returns were too much for Lind in a 6-1, 6-0 final while Gerard’s power game and court swagger didn’t suit Herendeen in a 6-1, 6-2 final.

Combined with a two doubles win from Grant Clady and Nick Felke, 6-1, 6-0, against Hudson Snyder and Hayden Steger, Plymouth had the match win wrapped up in just over an hour’s time.

“I’m not sure, but we’ll talk about it on the way home,” Orban said of his team’s overall performance. “We were flat. One singles, two singles, two doubles, there just wasn’t a lot of life out of them. Our serves were terrible, and the second serves were right to them, so they loaded up and hammered it back at us. We had unforced errors all over the place. I’m not sure what it was today. Just a bad day I guess.”

Pilgrim No. 1 doubles duo of Nate Knapp and Braydon Davidson took care of Justin Stout and David Homme 6-2, 6-3 for the fourth win, but the decision was far from easy. Warsaw took a 2-1 lead, only to have Plymouth rattle off the final five games of the set. In set two, Plymouth held a 5-2 lead but Homme held serve to pull a game back, only for Knapp to close out the win with a pair of powerful serves.

Andrew Gauger gave Warsaw it’s only court win, and did so in convincing fashion in a 6-1, 6-0 win against Tommy Holloway. Gauger used the court well and took what Holloway offered from the endline, slamming home several winners at the net.

“Andrew is just mentally tough, and he hates to lose,” Orban said of Gauger. “He does everything I ask him to do. He is like a dog on a bone. Once he figures it out, he doesn’t let go. He is a lot of fun to watch.”

The loss bumps Warsaw to 4-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The loss also was the third this week and third match day in a row Warsaw fell on the wrong side of a ‘W’, losing to perennial regional contenders Goshen and Culver Academy. Orban knows his team is capable of running with the big boys, but inconsistency shown at Plymouth has been an issue.

“Last night we were so excited, we were so close to beating Culver,” Orban said, whose team lost 3-2 to Academy Wednesday. “Plymouth is good. They are solid. Their two Johns are really, really good. We just were flat. Not much else to say.”

Plymouth and Warsaw tied 6-6 in the JV matches. Results were as follows:

#1S: Ryan Wettschurack (W) def. Curtis Smith (P) 6-4, 6-4
#2S: Zach Moser (P) def. Nolan Knight (W) 8-3
#3S: Mitch Rose (P) def. Nick Marsh (W) 8-3
#1D: Spenser Britton & Reuben Williams (W) def. Ricky Cooper & Luke Vervynckt (P) 6-1, 7-5
#2D: Hudson Yoder & Michael Johnson (P) def. Kyler Bartol & Ethan Hoff (W) 8-5
#3D: Diego Miguel & Keeton Bartol (W) def. Keith Longenecker & Cameron Clarkson (P) 6-4
#4D: Bryce Pequignot & Darrin Knisley (W) def. Shaun Frantz & Clay Hillard (P) 6-2
#5D: Eric Baumgartner & Brandon Chan (W) def. Chase Clarkson & Keeten Rippy (P) 8-2
#6D: Justin Moser & Chapman Yoder (P) def. Bailey Buhrt & Jarod Barber (W) 7-6 (7-3)
#7D: Tanner Lockridge & Grant Wolf (W) def. Jonas Wimmer & Tanner Medina (P) 6-4
#8D: Hudson Yoder & Michael Johnson (P) def. Jarett Orr & Dawon Vilamma (W) 4-1
#9D: Zach Moser & Mitch Rose (P) def. Nolan Knight & Noah Hutton (W) 4-0

Warsaw will host Crown Point this Saturday and jump back into NLC play Tuesday when Northridge visits the Tiger Tennis Complex.