The Reeths-Puffer girls tennis team has been living on the edge lately, with a lot of really close matches determining its fate.
The Rockets won most of the close ones against Mona Shores on Monday and won the overall match. They lost most of the close ones against Caledonia on Wednesday and lost the overall match.
On Thursday R-P again ran into some tough matchups, but pulled out most of the close matches and emerged with an impressive 6-3 victory over Grandville.
Hope Latsch (No. 2 singles) lost her first set against Arianna Comstock 6-3, then bounced back and won the second set 6-0 and the tiebreaker 10-8.
R-P doubles team of Jayla Brink and Makalya Smith
R-P's Lauren Matz and Elana Weiden (No. 2 doubles) lost their first set 7-5, but then won the second set 6-2 and the tiebreaker 10-3.
Makalya Smith and Jayla Brink (No. 4 doubles) won their first set 7-6, lost the second 6-2, then won the tiebreaker 11-9.
R-P's Maddie Hutchinson and Emma Dvorak (No. 5 doubles) lost their first set 6-4, then won their second 6-4 and the tiebreaker 10-8.
Molly Matz (No. 3 singles) and Gabrielle Borgeson and Malania Eilers (No. 1 doubles) won their matches in straight sets.
"It was our first match ever versus the Grandville Bulldogs, and it was an extremely close and competitive match of two improving programs," said R-P head coach Ryan Hankinson.
"As a coach I am always nervous about creating a schedule that is too tough and challenging, but the improvement of the Rockets requires us to compete against some bigger dogs and see how well we fare. Tonight we showed we were up to the challenge and we thrived in tiebreakers to get the huge victory."
The Rockets will be extremely busy next week, with four matches on the schedule.