See full page salute to the Salem tennis team in next week’s edition.
The season came to a close for Salem May 15, as Tiger seniors Jacob Stacy and Jacob Rusk both lost in the opening round of the singles competition at the Missouri Class 1 Individual Sectional Tournament, held at Springfield Catholic High School.
Springfield Catholic sophomore Luke Steiner, who finished in the top 10 at state as a freshman last year, shut out Stacy 6-0, 6-0. And Rusk was also shut out 6-0, 6-0 by a top-flight Catholic opponent – senior Jason Nayar, who has signed to play tennis at UCLA.
The Tigers finished a solid 2018 campaign, during which they finished 11-3 in dual-meet competition and were the South-Central Conference champions.
Senior Sam Swindell became the fifth player in school history with a combined singles/doubles 30-win season. Swindell and senior Richard Parks broke the school career record for doubles victories with 39.
And for the first time in program history the squad had four players advance to sectional competition in their careers – Rusk and Stacy this year and the doubles team of Swindell/Parks last season.
