TROY — Troy legendary tennis coach Mark Goldner and Lehman Catholic tennis coach Tim Ungericht have been firends since before any of the players on the court Monday at Troy High School were born.

And they are always happy to open the season against each other. And given Troy’s experience and Lehman’s youth, the 5-0 Trojans win was no surprise.

“Of course we lost Sashi (first singles Yasashi Masunaga),” Goldner said. “But, we have Kyle (freshman Kyle Penny) to step in at first singles. We don’t have any seniors, but the other guys all played last year.”

And Ungericht sees a bright future for his team.

“We only have two upperclassmen,” he said. “This is a really good Troy team. We have been working hard. They went through a clinic at Schroeder’s this winter and I think that is going to help them. What we wanted tonight was to come out and fight hard and I feel like we did that.”

Goldner agreed.

“Tim (Ungericht) does a great job and he will get them going,” Goldner said. “It is really been tough to judge things, the weather has been up and down so far. I just want to see us compete well with whoever we are playing.”

In singles, Penny defeated Tommy Lins 6-0, 6-0; Kellan Nichols defeated Logan Linson 6-0, 6-0 and Michael Burns defeated Ethan Taylor 6-0, 6-0.

“Tommy (Lins) is a sophomore moving from doubles to first singles,” Ungericht said. “I only have one senior.”

In doubles, Leo Gluck and Troy Whitehead defeated Luke Courtad and Adam Flood 6-0, 6-1 and Adam Harris and Parth Rajput defeated Calvin Linson and O’Keefe Cooper 6-1, 6-0.

And after the match, both coaches thanked each other — as they always do — and got ready for their next challenge.

Sports Editor Rob Kiser can be reached at [email protected]