Jeff Linville/The News

Mount Airy’s Taylor Bobbitt hits a backhand against Surry Central Tuesday. The Bears have won two straight after adding Bobbitt and Will Pfitzner to the starting six in the past week.

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The Mount Airy tennis team appears to be picking up steam, winning for the fourth time in five matches after downing Surry Central 8-1.

The Golden Eagles already had a couple of conference wins under their belt and lost a close 5-4 match to North Surry. A win could have tied Central with the Bears for second place in the Northwest Conference.

The Granite Bears took away any doubt by winning five of six singles matches to decide the outcome before doubles play began.

Matt and Mitch Kessler posted quick two-set wins at the top two spots. Matt swept Luke Haymore 6-0, 6-0, while Mitch downed Colby Chilton 6-0, 6-1.

Taylor Bobbitt, in only his second match of the season, won the fifth-seed match 6-1, 6-0 over Trevor Smith. That gave the Bears a 3-0 team lead with three matches still going on.

Jordan Lawson kept the Bears perfect with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Zach Wilmoth at the third spot.

Sixth seeds Will Pfitzner and Trent Day went back and forth throughout the first set before Pfitzner prevailed 7-5. Then in the second set, the senior Pfitzner swept Day 6-0 to clinch the team win while the fourth seeds continued to play.

Freshman Justin Leonard took the first set 6-2. Eagle Alex Fowler had some good points in the set, but couldn’t put together enough to win the games.

In the second set, Fowler turned it around and bested Leonard 6-2 to force a third-set tiebreaker.

Fowler led 3-1, but Leonard rallied to win three straight points and go up 4-3.

Fowler went ahead 8-5, but the freshman took three of the next four points to make it 9-8 before Fowler won 10-8.

The Bears took all three doubles matches in convincing fashion.

Mitch Kessler and Lawson won 8-0 over Haymore and Chilton. Matt Kessler and Pfitzner won 8-1 against Fowler and Smith. Leonard and Bobbitt won 8-2 over Wilmoth and Day.

The Bears improved to 4-2 (3-1 conference) and will travel to South Stokes on Tuesday. The Sauras were swept 9-0 in all three conference matches coming into the day.

The Eagles will host East Surry on Thursday.