Bidding for a 2-0 start to District 7-4A tennis competition, the Brownwood Lions and Lady Lions were instead denied by Lampasas, 11-8, in Thursday action at the Brownwood High Tennis Complex.

“It’s always close with them,” said Brownwood tennis head coach Dalton Hutchins. “Doubles was extremely competitive and fun to watch. I think we can take a lot of positives from this match and use it against Gatesville on Tuesday.”

Brownwood won three of the seven total doubles matches, with the Lady Lions teams of No. 1 Ashlyn Bundick and Zoe Smith (6-4, 1-6, 13-11 over White and Brewer) and No. 2 Ihana Figueroa and Anna Daniel (6-4, 3-6, 10-4 over Unger and Hodges) tallying victories, along with the Lions No. 1 tandem of Trine Baugh and Blake Hutchins (6-2, 3-6, 10-7 over Ashfield and Copeland).

The Lions then secured wins in five of six singles matches with the triumphs belonging to No. 1 Eric Smith (4-6, 6-3, 10-8 over Copeland), No. 3 Hutchins (6-3, 6-3 over Pronovost), No. 4 Baugh (2-6, 7-5, 10-7 over Fry), No. 5 Aiden Oplotnik (6-0, 6-3 over Messinger) and No. 6 Andre Martinez (6-4, 7-5 over Ecker).

The Lady Lions were turned back in all six of their singles matches.

The Lions and Lady Lions (4-5, 1-1) will visit Gatesville at 4 p.m. Tuesday for the third of four district matches.