Boys at Glenwood — Glenwood 7, Atlantic 2

Singles:

#1 Mitch Leiferman 12 (A) over Grant Stivers 12 (G) 10-1
#2 Scott King 12 (G) over Tyler Fischer 12 (A) 10-5
#3 Garrett Hembry 12 (G) over Gunnar Blum 12 (A) 10-3
#4 Jake Rhoads 12 (G) over Noah Welter 11 (A) 10-6
#5 Joe Gunkelman 12 (G) over Jake Arneson 10 (A) 10-2
#6 Max Chavez 10 (G) over Blake Meneely 11 (A) 10-6

Doubles:

#1 Stivers/Hembry (G) over Leiferman/Blum (A) 10-5
#2 Fischer/Welter (A) over King/Rhoads (G) 11-10 (7-4 tiebreak)
#3 Gunkelman/Chavez (G) over Arneson/Rob Nichols 12 (A) 10-4

Coach Shawn Petersen Comments:

Overall, obviously not happy with the loss, but it was to a better team.  Mitch worked his way to a convincing win at #1, displaying outstanding court management and really getting after it defensively — he never let Stivers get any footing. Fischer and Blum both played commendable matches — they were just outplayed by their counterparts — good effort by both Tyler and Gunnar.  I thought we had a chance to get a couple of matches at 4-6, but got off to slow starts across the board in those matches.  In order to beat the better teams in our league, and Glenwood could be the best team in the league, we need to find a way to win a match or two we aren’t favored in — and to this point we haven’t been able to find a way to do that.  Give credit to Glenwood — they’ve got very good athletes up and down their lineup, and that advantage was very evident in the singles matches.

In doubles, at #1 we dug ourselves a 5-0 hole, playing not very aggressively and it cost us.  Once Mitch and Tyler started playing more offensively, it was an even match, but too much to overcome.  At #2, Tyler and Noah gutted one out for us — they trailed most of the match, but rallied to force a tiebreak; in the tiebreak, they were down 3-0 before putting together 5 straight points, ultimately finishing off their opponents 7-4 in the tiebreak — Tyler and Noah remain undefeated at #2 doubles.  At #3 Jake and Rob had a hard time getting anything going, but competed well to the end in the loss.

The boys are now 1-2 in conference and overall — they travel to Lewis Central on Thursday before hosting Denison and Clarinda next week.

JV winners were: Rob Nichols, Scott Caslow, Dalton Cook, Adam Wieser, Nick Podhajsky, Garrett McConnell, Reid Nichols, Ben Parker, Wyatt Saeugling, and Sam Bateman.

Girls at Atlantic — Glenwood 9, Atlantic 0

Singles:

#1 Rachel Tucker 11 (G) over Tori Dolch 11 (A) 8-1
#2 Grace Newman 11 (G) over Leah Tjepkes 10 (A) 8-0
#3 Montana Crow 11 (G) over Lexi Allen 10 (A) 8-2
#4 Britney Rodgers 12 (G) over Abby Johnson 11 (A) 8-0
#5 Marely Chavez 12 (G) over Lisa Gearheart 10 (G) 8-0
#6 Jana King 9 (G) over Kaley Miller 11 (A) 8-1

Doubles:

#1 Tucker/Newman (G) over Dolch/Tjepkes (A) 8-0
#2 Crow/Rodgers (G) over Allen/Johnson (A) 8-3
#3 Chavez/King (G) over Gearheart/Libby Gifford 11 (A) 8-4

Coach Shawn Petersen comments:

On the scoreboard, not a whole lot of positives for the girls — Glenwood is one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the league, and showed it.  They have a veteran group that has played a lot of tennis, and our girls are still learning how to compete and play against good competition.  Most of our girls are playing better, but don’t have the results to show for it — I feel for them, because it’s not a lack of effort in practice or in meets — they’re just playing better competition right now.  We need to keep chopping wood and working to improve every day, and the results will come for them.  Fortunately, I have a great group of girls to work with, and they are giving me everything they’ve got — as a coach that’s all I can ask of them.  Girls host Lewis Central on Tuesday before traveling to Denison and Clarinda next week.