Girls — Atlantic 5, Clarinda 1 (susp. — rain)

Singles
#1 Liz Metheny 12 (A) over Beth Reiter 12 (C) 8-5
#2 Shelby Svoboda 12 (A) over Teal Driscol 12 (C) 8-6
#3 Carli Thornton 12 (A) over Kristan Clement 12 (C) 8-6
#4 Morgan Allen 12 (A) over Alyssa Alexander 12 (C) 8-2
#5 Sarah Schreiner 12 (A) over Lindsey Poore 12 (C) 8-0
#6 Casey Dean 10 (C) over Tierney Kamies 12 (A) 8-4

Doubles play suspended during warm-ups

Boys — Atlantic 5, Clarinda 4

Singles
#1 Derek Tjepkes 12 (A) over Logan Sump 11 (C) 8-0
#2 Jeremiah Haug 11 (C) over Brett Dennis 12 (A) 9-8 (7-5 tiebreak)
#3 Tyler Stevie (C) over Blake Meneely 10 (A) 8-4
#4 Tyler Fischer 10 (A) over Cordell Turner 11 (C) 8-2
#5 Alex Hiat (C) over Noah Welter 10 (A) 8-5
#6 Austin Conrad 11 (A) over Nate Jones (C) 8-4

Doubles
#1 Tjepkes/Cody Ihnen 12 (A) over Haug/Stevie (C) 8-3
#2 Sump/Jones (C) over Dennis/Conrad (A) 8-2
#3 Fischer/Welter (A) over Turner/Hiat (C) 8-1

JV Boys winners for Atlantic —

Singles — Wyatt Saeugling
Doubles — Meneely/Matt Cook, Jake Arneson/Rob Nichols, Dalton Cook/Scott Caslow, Chad Olsen/Mark Schreiner, Stuart Hoegh/Adam Wieser

Coach Shawn Petersen Comments —

Girls —

This was a great win for the girls — Clarinda is one of the few teams we will see with our senior depth, and it was really tough conditions — borderline unplayable with the temperature and the wind; at #1 Liz was down most of her match, and down 5-4 she started playing more aggressively and won the final 4 games to beat a tough Reiter; seemingly every game went to deuce, and Liz battled through to get us a big win; at #2 it was a similar story — Shelby got down early, but battled back to take a late lead and held serve to finish off Teal; Carli was down early in her match 2-0, but won 3 straight games to take a 3-2 lead; both girls played well and held serve until Carli finally prevailed — a great win for Carli; Morgan at #4 took control early and handled the conditions very well in winning 8-2; Sarah pulled through in some tight games early and then coasted to victory at #5; Tierney was battling a back injury and played well considering her health, losing to a very good sophomore in Dean; as the 3 doubles matchups were just getting ready to start, the clouds opened up on us ending the dual. We will see Clarinda again Saturday at the Trojann Tournament in Atlantic. I was very pleased with the grit the girls showed — a nice bounce-back win over a good team, after a disappointing loss at Glenwood last week.

Boys —

Unfortunately we had to play this match without our #1 player, Mitch Leiferman, and since Clarinda returned most of their lineup from last year, I anticpated a tough dual, even if we were at full-strength; to get a win on the road hopefully shows that we have grown some since the start of the year.

#1 — Derek was really on point from the get-go in a dominating performance over a veteran Sump from Clarinda; #2 Brett was playing for the first time at #2, and almost got the win, losing in a tight tiebreaker; #3 Blake was up early 3-0, then lost his mojo and had a hard time getting it back, losing a tough match 8-4; #4 Tyler played probably his best match of the year in winning handily 8-2 — I’m really excited about the progress he’s made, as this is only his second year of playing tennis; #5 Noah got off to a slow start, then played his opponent even the rest of the match; he needs to be ready to go from the start, especially in an 8-game set — a slow start is tough to overcome; #6 Austin got us a crucial win at #6, evening up the dual heading to doubles; Austin didn’t know he’d be in the lineup until shortly before the match, so he did a great job pinch-hitting for us at the #6 spot.

Doubles — #1 Derek teamed with Cody Ihnen in Cody’s first exposure to varsity competition; they got off to a hot start an cruised to the win — a great effort for these two seniors; #2 Austin and Brett started out slowly and couldn’t get things going very much — we need more consistency out of them at #2 doubles as we head into a tough stretch next week; #3 Welter and Fischer continue to be steady for us at #3 — in tight duals it’s amazing how often the contest comes down to #3 doubles, so it was clutch of them to get the win for us.

next week the boys travel to Denison on monday (make-up), then host Audubon Tuesday, travel to Red Oak Thursday, host LC on Friday (another make-up), before hosting the Trojan Tournament on Saturday; hopefully the weather will cooperate as we have a season-defining week coming up.