CO-LIN MEDIA / NATALIE DAVIS / Co-Lin’s Braxton Hinton returns a serve in mens’ tennis action Wednesday against East Central.

WESSON – The Copiah-Lincoln Community College men’s tennis team won their season opener against the East Central Community College Warriors 6-3 on a cold and windy day in Wesson. The freshmen came up big in the hotly contested match.

Freshmen Braxton Hinton of Brookhaven and Drake Nelson of Monticello started their college careers with wins in singles and doubles. The pair won at #2 doubles 8-4 and then followed up with singles wins with Hinton winning in a third set tiebreaker (6-2, 2-6, 10-8) over Cole Duty at #3 singles. Nelson won his match over Devin Skinner 6-2, 6-3 at #5 singles.

Freshman Will Pennington of Summit and sophomore Dwain Perkins of Natchez picked up an 8-4 win over Juan Miranda/ Robert Strong at #1 doubles. Perkins then followed up with a dominating 6-0, 6-1 over Miranda at #1 singles. Sophomores Brandon Nettles of Wesson and Coleman Carraway of Brandon completed Co-Lin’s sweep in doubles with a convincing 8-3 win Duty/Alex Chapman at #3 doubles.

East Central picked up three wins in singles. Jason Yarbrough defeated Pennington at #2 singles 6-4, 6-3. In two three set tie breakers, East Central’s Strong defeated Nettles at #3 singles 3-6, 6-2 (17-15) and Chapman defeated Carraway 3-6, 6-1 (10-6).

“If we would have won all of the third set tiebreakers, we would have won the match 8-1,” said Wolfpack head coach Brenda Smith. “If we would have lost all of them, we would have only won 5-4, that’s why it is important to win tiebreakers. Brandon fought off 6 match points before losing 17-15. The first one to 10 by 2 points wins the third set tiebreaker. I was really pleased with how we played doubles and adjusted to windy and cold conditions,” Smith said.

Co-Lin is back in action on Friday when they travel to Meridian beginning at 2 p.m.

Singles: 

1. Dwain Perkins (CL) def. Juan Miranda (ECCC) 6-0, 6-1

2. Javon Yarbrough (ECCC) def. Will Pennington (CL) 6-4; 6-3

3. Braxton Hinton (CL) def. Cole Duty (ECCC) 6-2, 2-6 (10-8)

4. Robert Strong (ECCC) def. Brandon Nettles (CL) 3-6, 6-2 (17-15)

5. Drake Nelson (CL) def. Devin Skinner (ECCC) 6-2, 6-3

6. Alex Chapman (ECCC) def. Coleman Carraway (CL) 3-6, 6-1 (10-6)

Doubles 

1. Perkins/Pennington (CL) def. Miranda/Strong (ECCC) 8-4

2. Hinton/Nelson (CL) def. Yarbrough/Skinner (ECCC) 8-4

3. Nettles/Carraway (CL) def. Duty/Chapman (ECCC) 8-3