Lawrence High tennis player Rayn Abbott returns a volley against Free State. The Firebirds won, 8-1, Monday at FSHS.

Free State High’s boys tennis team wasn’t interested in becoming a part of some lonely company in its intracity tennis rivalry.

In the first 10 years the school was in existence, the Firebirds had not lost to Lawrence High at any dual meet. Monday afternoon, they kept the streak in tact with an easy 8-1 victory over the Lions at Free State’s courts.

“I didn’t even want to bring that up,” LHS coach Steve Hudson said of his pregame speech. “I think our guys came out and battled really well. They’re just a stroke or two better than us at almost every level we have.”

Free State began the day with a sweep of the three doubles matches. Blaine Kaehr and Charlie Moffet downed the Lions’ John McGrew and Ryan Abbott, 8-4, at No. 1 doubles. The closest LHS came was at No. 3, where Taylor Seratte and Michael Sang fell to Kevin Frantz and Adam Casady, 8-6.

In singles play, the Firebirds picked up where they left off. When Moffet defeated Abbott at No. 3 singles, Free State led 5-0, and the match was over for all intents and purposes.

“We came out and played really well today,” first-year Firebirds coach John Richey said. “One thing we did well was keep our focus. This is a sport where, if you come out and you’re a little bit unfocused, it will show more than other team sports. It would have been really easy to come out today and drop a couple more matches.”

But only two singles matches lasted much longer than 30 minutes. Kaehr’s match at No. 2 singles ended with an 8-6 victory over McGrew. The Lions’ only team point came in the final match to be decided, when Sang took down Frantz, 8-6.

“We were just trying to get games on them and make it close,” McGrew said. “We knew we probably weren’t going to come out on top, but I’d say we did pretty well in the games that we won.”

Richey said he was glad to escape the dual with another Firebirds victory.

“I think anytime that you play a rival, you’re going to have a closer match than you anticipate, even if you anticipate doing well,” Richey said. “I think today, that kind of happened a little bit.”

Said Hudson: “I’m not too disappointed because Free State is such a good team. I’m proud of our guys for their effort.”