Benton’s Luke Talbot is accustomed to winning, thanks to his blistering serves and powerful ground strokes.

Turns out his coin-flip predictions are just as accurate.

The Cardinals’ senior claimed the No. 1 singles title at Thursday’s Benton-Savannah Invitational at Noyes Tennis Complex with a 'heads’ call — much to the disappointment of Bishop LeBlond’s Ryan Walker, who tied Talbot’s 57 points.

“Heads all the way,” Talbot said. “You can never go wrong with heads.”

Benton’s victory in the eight-team tournament wasn’t a matter of luck, however, as the Cardinals plowed through the bracket on the rackets of Talbot and Jayce Berry, who went undefeated in the No. 2 singles slot.

The Cardinals ended the Chillicothe/LeBlond stranglehold on the event with a 3-2 win against the Hornets in the championship and gave the South Side tennis team concrete proof of its steady improvement from a youthful squad in 2006.

“This is really good for Benton tennis,” Talbot said. “Everybody worked hard on their game, and it’s been a great team effort to get here.”

Benton needed just that to earn the final win.

Solid victories from Talbot and Berry provided an early 2-0 advantage against the Hornets, who needed to win all three doubles matches to defend their title from a year ago.

Chillicothe looked prepared to pull off the tag-team sweep after Cody Greenlaw and Morgan Saunders cruised to the No. 1 doubles title. But Brandon Richey and Ryan Miller rebounded from a second-round loss to Savannah and won a back-and-forth 10-7 tussle with Justin Littrell and Colton Allen to wrap up the team title.

“They were really discouraged after that second match, and I was a little concerned how they would respond,” Benton coach Bob Nash said. “It really shows their resolve to bounce back.”

Talbot did just that during his first round win.

The 2007 state qualifier dropped his first game in 49 tries to start off against Maryville’s Anthony Gromoutis. Despite the poor start, Talbot quickly rebounded and used his scorching serve to defeat Gromoutis 10-3.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to beat him, and he came out more focused than I did,” Talbot said.

Gromoutis and Central’s Andrew Ellis are the only players to take a game from Talbot this year. Walker, who earned flawless 10-0 win in his first two matches, hopes to add his name to that list Wednesday when the two teams meet in a dual.

Walker went 0-for-3 against Talbot a year ago and has improved his service returns as a result.

“I’ve been working on my serve return every day at practice,” Walker said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

LeBlond’s Matt Lierz took the No. 2 singles title by a point over Berry, while Mike Lierz teamed with Alex Bridges placed second in the top doubles flight after a hard-fought 11-9 loss — just their second — against Greenlaw/Saunders.

All three of Benton’s doubles team finished in the top three, while the team of Brett Terry and Zach Beattie — winners of the No. 2 doubles flight — gave Savannah its only top-three finish.