HANNIBAL - The Fulton Hornets tennis team won two singles matches and two in doubles play to launch its season with an 8-4 North Central Missouri Conference loss to the Hannibal Pirates on Tuesday night.
Junior Justin Adams upended Hannibal's Tyler Bush 10-4 at No. 3 singles and fellow junior Grant Hendricks followed up by outlasting the Pirates' Jack Jeffries in an 11-9 triumph at No. 4. Adams and sophomore Haydon Windsor then partnered up for a 10-8 victory over Hannibal's Brad Curl and Matt Durst at No. 1 doubles, while Hendricks teamed with senior Gage Oestreich for a 10-4 win at No. 2 over Bush and Jeffries.
"Hannibal is one of our tougher opponents in the conference, so I was really pleased with the way we played," Fulton head coach Rob Fisher said. "Everybody gave great effort and there's a lot of potential."
Here are the rest of Tuesday night's singles and doubles results:
•No. 1 singles: Curl (H) defeated Windsor (F), 10-5; No. 2: Durst (H) def. Oestreich (F), 10-5; No. 5: Caleb Northcutt (H) def. sophomore Devin Ferro (F), 10-2; No. 6: Joe Karlinski (H) def. sophomore Isaiah Mackley (F), 10-2.
•No. 3 doubles: Northcutt/Karlinski (H) def. Ferro/junior James Hill (F), 10-3; No. 4: Adam Ledbetter/Eliot Gieseke (H) def. Mackley/senior Alex Zajdel (F), 10-3; No. 5: Austin Taylor/Caleb Lionberger (H) def. freshman Jon Milligan/senior Caleb Brown (F), 10-0; No. 6: Seth Conner/Luke Boyd (H) def. freshman Garrett Johnson/senior Brayden Barton (F), 10-2.
The Hornets travel to School of the Osage for a non-conference encounter at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29.