When asked about her team’s performance in the Niles Invitational doubles tournament, Vikings tennis coach Jill Weber seemed almost as awestruck as she was proud.

“I believe overall they played amazing. They showed just how good of team they are. It’s really great, they have worked so hard and now you can really start to see that it has paid off,” she said.

The tournament stats would definitely back that claim.

The Niles team won 17 out of 18 doubles matches on Saturday cruising to the invitational title and also sweeping the individual flight titles in the process.

The Niles doubles Flight No. 1 team, comprised of No. 1 singles player Jared Langmeyer and No. 2 singles player Brad Miller, had probably the most grueling road to their championship.

In their first match of the day, the duo found themselves in an intense match with Mishawaka’s Bobby Loroy and Andrew Labunar. Through seven games in the first set, the Niles team found itself up 5-2, only to have the feisty Cavemen rally back to even the score at 6-6 and send it into a first set tie-break. Langmeyer and Miller rebounded to take the tie-break (7-4) and the first set 7-6. The Cavemen again tested the Vikings in the second set forcing yet another tie-break. Niles went on to take that tie-break (7-2) and the match 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2).

As it turned out, the Vikings’ No. 1 flight pair was just getting started.

In their second match of the day, they faced the very tough Edwardsburg team of Anthony Dopp and Trent Baker. The Eddies took the first set of the match 7-5, but the Vikings rallied to take the second set 6-4 and force a third set ten-point tie-break. After some lengthy rally points and some incredible shots from all players involved, Niles won the tie-break in thrilling fashion, taking the match 5-7, 6-4, (11-9).

“I really think those two held strong. They’re both normally singles players and in kind of a new situation. So to see them play like that was great,” Weber said.

The matches that the Vikings’ No. 1 flight team played were really a microcosm of the tennis that was played over the course of the day. The tournament saw a slew of great rally points and sensational comebacks with the Vikings being the benefactors on most of the latter.

Coach Weber was not surprised to see the resiliency within her team.

“This team never loses heart and almost always finds a way to fight back. I’m really proud of how we played,” she said.

Niles Doubles Tournament

Team Scores

Niles 17, Edwardsburg 10, Mishawaka 9, Coloma 0

Individual flight champions

Jared Langmeyer-Brad Miller – Niles 1st 3-0; Anthony Dopp-Trent Baker – Edwardsburg 2nd 2-1

Alec Brown-Nick Zeigert – Niles 1st 3-0; Jon Dickinson-Andrew Furlow – Mishawaka 2nd 2-1

Danny Touhey-Taylor Farmer – Niles 1st 3-0; Josh Kosinski-Andrew Reynolds – Edwardsburg 2nd 2-1

Eric Wood-Matt Miller – Niles 1st 3-0; Mitchell Montgomery-Andy Dong – Mishawaka 2nd 2-1

Gevanta Nichols-Brent McGowan – Niles 1st 3-0; Derek Scott-Doug Kessler – Edwardsburg 2nd 2-1

Connor Glick-Trevor Kizer – Niles 1st 2-1 (16); Nathan Vaughn-Jarret Demonia – Mishawaka 2nd 2-1 (20)