The Oak Harbor High School tennis team broke a third-place tie with Arlington by defeating the visiting Eagles 4-3 Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Both teams entered the match with 3-3 league records, and, fittingly, the contest was even throughout.

“This was a close match that could have gone either way,” Oak Harbor coach Horace Mells said.

The team score was knotted at three as the schools waited for the completion of the second doubles match to decide the winner.

Oak Harbor’s Jared Hunt and Alexander Smith dropped the first set in a tie-breaker, 7-6(4), then came back to win twice at 6-3 to wrap up the Wildcat victory.

Hunt and Smith “really came through,” Mells said, to secure the match.

Oak Harbor’s other team points came in first, second and fourth singles.

Both first singles Jackson Wezeman (6-1, 4-6) and fourth singles Raymond Paraiso (6-0, 4-6) won easily in the first set before dropping the second. Both bounced back to blank their opponent 6-0 in the decisive third set.

Second singles Carter Saar won 6-1, 6-3.

Third singles Tom Dale lost 7-5, 6-2; first doubles Kyle Martin and Jared Alano-Gray fell 6-2, 6-0; and third doubles Matthew Hallahan and Calib Byers lost 6-3, 6-3.

In exhibition matches, the Wildcat duos of Max Van Dam/Nathan Magdalera and Joseph Cortez/Jhon Dimaculangan each won 8-6.

Oak Harbor (4-3, 4-5) heads to first-place Stanwood (6-1, 7-3) at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9.