By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

Trepidation was in the heart of Tiger tennis coach Brian Flax on the eve of the team's fall finale at the FHSU courts.

It was all for naught. But Flax admitted after Saturday's 6-3 win over Hastings (Neb.) College that the night before he wouldn't have been surprised if the score would have been reversed. That's because his Fort Hays State University squad is just that young.

Instead of heading into the spring season with a loss, the Tigers can celebrate their victory.

"I like this team now," Flax said. "I like it for the future."

Fort Hays returned just two players from last year's team, and one of those is hurt. All those newcomers came together to forge a 3-3 fall record.

"They played pretty smart today," Flax said. "Some days we're not smart, some days we are.

"They had some good intensity from the get-go," Flax added.

The Tigers' doubles teams got things started out right, winning two of three, including the first win ever for the No. 2 doubles team of freshmen Kelsey Bigando and Amanda Henkel.

"The thing that really stood out, all three doubles played cleaner matches," Flax said. "No. 2 doubles got their first win of the year, (against) good competition, played their best match."

Also winning in doubles was the No. 3 team of freshman Kayla Jarvis and sophomore Kelly Smidt.

Flax pointed to Jarvis' win at No. 6 singles as a key to the victory. Jarvis rallied to get in a tiebreaker, then trailed in the tiebreaker before winning the final five points.

"That was the tipping point," Flax said.

Fort Hays won four of six singles matches to put away Hastings.

Winning besides Jarvis was Bigando at No. 2, freshman Krista Lindsey at No. 3 and Henkel at No. 4.

"Hastings usually is top two in their conference," Flax said. "We've been able to beat them the last several years, (but) they've been good matches."

Now, the Tigers can head into offseason workouts on a high note.

"It's no doubt, 3-3, going .500, sounds a lot better than 2-4," Flax said.