FARMINGTON, Mo. --The Mules got a preview of their quarterfinal opponent in the MSHSAA Class 2 individual sectional playoff Tuesday afternoon.
Poplar Bluff's Humza Siddiqui lost to Blaise Fagan of Kirkwood for the second straight year while Ben Stewart and Nathan Smith also suffered a straight-set loss in doubles play to Lindbergh's Brett Kim and Jack Faris.
"I was proud of the showing of all three of our guys," Mules coach Charles Harper said.
The Mules (9-1) will face the Flyers (13-0) in the team sectional at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Lindbergh. With a win, Poplar Bluff would host the winner of Marquette (16-1) and Chaminade (14-6) in the quarterfinal Thursday.
Matches were moved up from Saturday due to the threat of rain. With Poplar Bluff's senior banquet set for Thursday and the Mules unable to travel, the other schools agreed to come south for the quarterfinal.
Lindbergh swept Poplar Bluff in the quarterfinal last year.
"It will be a long shot against Lindbergh but after seeing five of their six, the boys feel like we have a shot," Harper said. "If everybody is 'in the zone' tomorrow we could compete well."
Stewart and Smith, who won the District 1 doubles title, lost 6-3, 6-0 to Lindbergh's Faris and Kim.
The Mules played well in the first set, Harper said, holding serve one time each and breaking Lindbergh's serve once with several deuce games.
"Lindbergh pair was solid," Harper said.
Faris and Kim each advanced to the state doubles tournament last year with different partners and they lost the district final to their teammates in three sets. Calvin Faris and Ben Murry also advanced to state with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Cape Central's Spencer Kidd and Bennett Kid.
Lindbergh's Layton Wille lost his singles match to Alex England of Farmington, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Siddiqui lost 6-2, 6-1 to Fagan a year after losing 6-3, 6-1 last year.
In the first set Tuesday, Siddiqui fell behind 2-0 after an opening service break but held serve and got a service break to get within 4-2 before losing the set.
The second set started the same with Siddiqui getting within 2-1 before Fagan pulled away.
"Fagan's forehand and serve were lethal, and Humza was still competitive," Harper said. "There were many long rallies and Humza had several nice passing shots when Fagan came to the net."