“Wait till next year!” was the annual chant by Brooklyn Dodgers’ fans, until their team won the 1955 World Series.

Polk County High School tennis coach Richard Davis feels much the same way that those Dodgers (and more recent Atlanta Braves fans) felt about their respective teams. On Monday, April 18, Davis could feel the chance for a conference title slip away, as if in a bad dream, as the Wolverines fell to visiting Owen, 5-4.

It was only the Wolverines’ second conference loss this season, against five wins.

It was near-perfect tennis weather as Polk’s number one player Tyler Oxtoby handily defeated the Warhorses’ Gable Lammons, 10-3, in singles. In number two singles, the Wolverines’ Payton Stott topped Sean Douglas, 10-4. At number three, Polk’s Henry Monts defeated Joseph Frith, 10-2.

From there, the roof fell in on the Wolverines, whose lone previous Western Highlands Conference loss had been a disappointing one to a surging Mountain Heritage team. After that loss, Polk still had an excellent chance to either win the conference title or place second, still earning a shot at the state tournament.

All those hopes and expectations seemed to slide over the cliff (though the Wolverines could finish second) as Polk’s number four through six players (Alec Becker, Rustin Muse and Malik Miller) fell to Owen.

In doubles, only the combo of Oxtoby and Monts scored a win, defeating Douglas and Frith, 8-3. The Stott/Becker and Muse/Miller duos both fell to Owen’s tandems of Lammons/Elias Peters and Hunter Haynes/Wytt Lehman, respectively.

“I am heartbroken over this loss!” Davis reported. “Today would have been, at least since my tenure (ten years) as boys’ tennis coach, (the first time) that we ever have gotten a chance to play a tennis match for the conference championship.”

If the Wolverines had defeated Owen, that chance would have occurred against Mountain Heritage.

“Credit Owen for playing this match and winning,” Davis continued, “but I have no idea where this came from.”

Davis went on to note that even though the stars’ alignment “had been perfect for this to be the year, somehow a UFO crashed into the aligned stars.”

Davis labeled the loss as a “cruel end to a once-perfect opportunity.” Having finished second in the WHC on multiple occasions, being happy with a second-place finish is not his mode of thinking. “This could very well also cost us a berth in the playoffs as well,” he said.