MMA tennis falls short of team state after 5-3 loss in Cape Girardeau

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 5/20/23

Missouri Military Academy knew Monday’s sectional tennis match would be tough.

In a battle between schools who have won three straight district titles, the Colonels lost 5-3 at Notre Dame …

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MMA tennis falls short of team state after 5-3 loss in Cape Girardeau

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Missouri Military Academy knew Monday’s sectional tennis match would be tough.

In a battle between schools who have won three straight district titles, the Colonels lost 5-3 at Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) on Monday to bring its team season to an end and fall one match short of making it to the state Final Four for the second straight year. Going in, head coach Brad Smith said MMA needed to win at least two of the three doubles matches and the Colonels dropped all three.

Smith said the difficulty was also lineup shuffling needed for No. 5 player Nathan Dempsey’s absence, shifting graduates Ernesto De La Maza and Temuulen Manlai each up a spot. 

“The match came down to these two matches in singles to decide the win, if we won both we would have won the match,” Smith said. “Unfortunately we were unable to obtain those two victories.”

Following doubles losses of 8-5, 8-4 and 8-3, MMA had wins from its Nos. 2-4 players in singles. Patricio Bravo Knobloch won 7-5, 7-5; and Samuel Way and Francisco De La Maza each took their matches 6-3, 6-2. 

Manlai and Ernesto De La Maza each were involved in long matches, resulting in Manlai losing 7-6 (via a 12-10 tiebreaker) and 6-3 and De La Maza’s match not counting while with a score of 4-6, 6-2 and 9-8.

“We are happy with the quality of tennis we played and are very pleased with our season ending with a 10-2 record, finishing top 8 in Class 2, and advancing three players to the state individual tournament on Thursday and Friday this week,” Smith said. 


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