BUCKHANNON – Playing in one of the toughest regions in the state isn’t going to do Buckhannon-Upshur head tennis coach Jason Rock and his young Buccaneer any favors this year, and he and his squad had to face two of those teams on back-to-back days on Monday and Tuesday.

The Bucs hosted Wheeling Park on the West Virginia Wesleyan courts Monday and dropped a 7-0 decision, then made the trip to Morgantown on Tuesday and lost a 7-0 decision to University on the West Virginia University courts.

“I think the kids were a little overwhelmed because the level of tennis is a bit of a step up from most of our conference opponents,” remarked Rock. “The Wheeling Park team takes tennis seriously and they show it in their competitiveness and attitudes. We were sort of that deer in the headlights for most of the match. Our boys are still working on the little things like movement and dealing with powerful serves and shots. I think our No. 2 doubles team of Helmick and Swift are starting to stand out as the team with the best doubles positioning and movement on the team and it is showing in their scores.”

Helmick and Swift had the most competitive match with Wheeling Park, falling to Grant Kenamond and Evan Stingle by an 8-4 score.

“Against University, we were in a much better mindset going into it,” noted Rock. “We knew it was a regional opponent and we knew they are really good. I think because we were in a better place mentally as a team, we competed much better against them than against Wheeling Park, even if the scores don’t necessarily show that.”

Rock heaped praise on his top singles player, Jude Snyder, for his match against Andrew McClellan at No. 1.

“I want to give a shout out to Jude who won a game against one of the best boys players in our region in McClellan,” said Rock. “He is getting better every match at hanging with the big boys at the No. 1 seed.”

The action left the Bucs with a 0-4 mark as they were slated to host Lewis County on Wednesday.

They will be back on the courts on Friday hosting Liberty in a Big 10 Conference battle at 4 p.m.