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SYRACUSE – Wawasee High School has been in session for a full week as of Monday, but the boys tennis team certainly looked like freshmen walking the halls for the first time. Despite a lineup with four seniors and a junior among its active seven, Wawasee showed a lot of nerves and jitters in a 5-0 loss to visiting Manchester in the season opener.

Singles play for Manchester was solid, notably at two and three singles. Max Karg had very little trouble controlling the power game of Todd Hauser in a 6-1, 6-0 final that ended in just over an hour on the two singles court. Three singles went to Brayton Spann, who settled in quickly against Nathan Perek to control the first set, 6-0, very quickly then withstand a little momentum Perek produced in set two for a 6-3 final.

Manchester’s Connor Eichenauer was equal to the task of Cal Heinisch on the one singles grid. Eichenauer used almost every trick in his bag, from drop shot winners to power serves to clever backhand returns. All told, Eichenauer won the match 6-3, 6-3 in what Wawasee head coach Vince Rhodes felt was a telling court for his club.

“They have to understand, they are going to see this type of play where kids hit the ball hard,” Rhodes said. “It’s all about anticipation and being smart. They need to move their feet. The one doubles court was a fine example, you can’t just lob it. One singles, same type of thing. If you hit it into the back of the fence, so be it, those shots will start to fall. Lobs won’t fall as the competition gets better.”

The one doubles pairing of Noah Cain and Branden Scott worked very well together to defeat Jake Hutchinson and Nate Haines 6-0, 6-2. Cain showed off a very versatile arsenal of power serves and pinpoint accurate returns while Scott complimented a lot of Wawasee’s lob returns with smart shots into vacancies.

Two doubles, ironically, needed twice the time as anyone else needed. Playing well past the two hour mark, Wawasee’s Brayton Fretz and Derek Stutzman both were making their varsity debuts against Heath Dierks and Matthew Pegg. Taking set one 6-4, Wawasee also held a 4-1 advantage, then 5-3 in the second set only for Manchester to rally for a tiebreaker and eventual 7-6 (7-5) in set two. Manchester’s duo then composed themselves with the opportunity and rolled in set three 6-1.

“A lot of the hard hitters really exposed what we haven’t been able to get fixed in practice,” Rhodes said. “We have to be able to hit the ball hard. If they are going to hit the ball hard to us, and we return it soft or late, results like tonight will be common. We’re swinging late, because we aren’t being aggressive to the ball.”

Rhodes wasn’t too upset with the effort given four of his seven were making varsity debuts and only Hauser playing in the same position as he consistently did last fall. Adjustments will be made as the team has three more matches in the next seven days, beginning with another home match Wednesday with Lakeland.

“I don’t think the kids thought this would be a walk-through at all, they just need to stick to the game plan a little better,” Rhodes said. “They lost a little focus when they got behind a little. When it was going good, I saw the smart play more. When they got behind, the silly things started to take over. We just need to have more confidence and not fall apart.”

The evening did not field any JV matches between the two schools as Manchester brought just the seven varsity athletes.