POULSBO — As North’s 2006 tennis season rounds the corner into its better half, the Vikings are making strides in their knowledge of the game.

The young team has matured since the beginning of the year, developing court sense, with some Vikings swinging into better form at each match. This past week, North faced their first back-to-back-to-back test of the season — with matches against Lincoln, South and Foss — and came away with two wins and one loss, evening their Narrows League record at 4-4.

“I think they get better, sure, but other teams are getting better as well,” NK head coach Jay Devries said in his midseason assessment. “They’ve learned how to play tennis. Whether or not they know how to win tennis, I can’t say.”

In the team’s first match of its triple-header, Sept. 26, the Vikings pulled out a decisive league win — despite the absence of their No. 1 singles player Kevin Joines — with a shutout over the Lincoln Abes, 5-0.

North’s regular No. 2 man Andrew Kilpatrick stepped up into the void in solid form, defeating Lincoln’s Phillip Karives 6-0, 6-0. Trying his hand at the No. 2 spot against Lincoln, Andrew Friesen also picked up a big win 6-1, 6-0 over Joe Remington.

North’s doubles teams rolled over the Abes with 6-0 straight sets across the board.

“We’re starting to learn how to play with each other better, this is our first year playing together so we are starting to get used to each other,” junior and half of North’s No. 1 doubles team Joe McBurney said, echoing all three of NK’s doubles teams’ situations. “At the SK invite, we had three very tough matches, and I think we did pretty well.”

South Kitsap was the second stop for North Wednesday as it traveled to Port Orchard to face a comparable Wolves squad.

McBurney and partner Jordan Tucker faced SK’s Garrett Klein and Belton Vavra, battling to a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 win, building their momentum. North’s No. 2 doubles — Jerol Bird and Connor Gallagher — also earned a win on the afternoon as they slugged it out against Chris and Jacob Hardwick, taking the match 7-6, (7-1) and finishing with an exclamation in the form of a 6-0 set.

North’s singles players faced stiff competition from South as well. The Wolves rolled to the 3-2 team victory as No. 1 singles Mike Waas defeated Joines 6-3, 6-3 and No. 2 Kramer Mott beat Kilpatrick by a count of 6-1, 6-1.

“We’re in a new league this year and really, we are playing a lot of the better teams. With Olympic being gone and Bremerton being gone, that doesn’t really help our record,” coach DeVries said. “I think the kids that have been with me before are used to winning more matches.”

Just as in most competition, winning produces confidence and increases one’s desire to contend, DeVries said, but as he watched the Vikings lumber to a 3-2 team win over a shaky Foss Thursday, he said the goal for the remainder of the season is simply to enjoy it.