KINGSFORD — The overall excellence shown by the Negaunee High School boys tennis team this spring paid off with a narrow victory at the Kingsford Invitational held at the Flivvers’ courts on Friday.

In this five-team tournament, each of the eight flights played the other four teams once for a total of 32 matches. Instead of the first-to-6, best-of-3 format used in a normal dual meet, these matches were a single set with the first to eight wins coming up victorious.

With each match victory counting for a single point, the Miners scored a near-perfect 28 of 32 points to beat out Kingsford’s 26.

Escanaba and West Iron County tied for third with 13, while Iron Mountain didn’t score.

Negaunee’s only four losses were to Kingsford, while the Flivvers also lost to NHS four times. The difference in the end was that the Miners didn’t lose any other matches, while Kingsford lost two others, according to KHS coach Dante Fortner.

The Flivvers’ coach noted that Negaunee was a perfect 4-0 at four flights. They were No. 4 singles player Axl Sarasin and a trio of doubles tandems — No. 2 Marshall Knapp and Vince Tincknell, No. 3 Conner Steede and Trent Emard, and No. 4 Wyatt Nelson and Brandon Alba.

The other four flights each went 3-1 and were just as crucial to the Miners winning the title. In singles, they were No. 1 Easton Guenette, No. 2 Nolan O’Dovero and No. 3 Max Larson, along with No. 1 doubles duo Carson “Spud” Lajimodiere and Quinn Walters.

“We felt that the goal of everything earlier (last) week was to prepare us for this tournament,” Negaunee head coach Kyle Saari said in an email about the event. “It’s important to learn how to win with each group in a tournament setting, and our depth showed. We knew we had to hold our own vs. Kingsford head to head, and then be perfect elsewhere. That’s exactly what we did,” he said.

Kingsford’s wins against Negaunee came from Landon Adam at No. 1 singles, Isaac Lebouef at No. 2 singles, Evan Grymes at No. 3 singles, and Clark Robb and Andy Yu at No. 1 doubles.

Also scoring points for Kingsford during the meet were David Arcand at No. 4 singles, Beau Bracket and Alex Hemgren at No. 2 doubles, Richard Waara and Jacob Waara at No. 3 doubles and Tyler Berglund and Gabe Mancuso at No. 4 doubles.

The Miners host Kingsford today and also host their own Negaunee Invite on Friday.

The MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in Division 1 are set for Wednesday, May 27, at Westwood.

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The Daily News contributed.