Girls at Atlantic — Shenandoah 9, Atlantic 0

Singles:
#1 Kimberly Graf 12 over Tori Dolch 11 10-0
#2 Mackenzie Johnson 12 over Leah Tjepkes 10 10-2
#3 Tarynne kinghorn 11 over Lexi Allen 10 10-3
#4 Ashton matheny 12 over Hope Bowker 11 10-4
#5 Emma Christensen 10 over Lisa Gearheart 10 10-4
#6 Jordan major 9 over Abby Johnson 11 10-1

Doubles:
#1 Graf/Major over Dolch/Allen 10-3
#2 Johnson/Christensen over Tjepkes/Bowker 10-2
#3 Kinghorn/Matheny over Gearheart/Libby Gifford 11 10-2

Coach Shawn Petersen Comments:
Shenandoah girls were the preseason favorite, in my mind to win conference — they have lost tight duals to both Red Oak and Denison, who are excellent teams as well, and proved to be very tough; i thought this was as well as the girls have played in some time — we kind of hit the wall last week and didn’t play very well vs Audubon and Red Oak.  The scores didn’t show it, but I was quite pleased with how well we competed on the day; Tori ran into the foreign exchange student from Switzerland, who is right up with any girl in the conference; Leah fought her backhand and serve a little bit, but kept battling against their very tough #2; Hope was up 4-1, then got off track and couldn’t right the ship; Lisa and Abby probably played as well as they have all year — I was very pleased with how they played in singles.  The girls are off until Saturday, when they will compete in the Des Moines Lincoln Invitational in Indianola.

Boys at Shen — Atlantic 7, Shenandoah 2

Singles:
#1 Mitch Leiferman 12 (A) over Jacob Holmes 11 (S) 10-3
#2 Tyler Fischer 11 (A) over Trent Turney 12 (S) 11-10 (7-1)
#3 Gunnar Blum 12 (A) over Bradley Young 10 (S) 10-2
#4 Kyle Fischer 11 (S) over Matt Cook 12 (A) 11-9
#5 Noah Welter 11 (A) over Ryan Niccoli 9 (S) 10-3
#6 Jake Arneson 10 (A) over Josh Miller 9 (S) 10-2

Doubles:
#1 Leiferman/Fischer (A) over Holmes/Turney (S) 10-2
#2 Young/Fischer (S) over Welter/Arneson 11-10 (7-1)
#3 Blum/Rob Nichols 12 (A) over Niccoli/Miller (S) 10-2

Coach Shawn Petersen Comments:
Shenandoah is a quality team — very tough at the top, and they’ve been playing well, knocking off Creston last week in a tight match that Creston probably should’ve won — nevertheless Creston handled us pretty easily earlier in the year, so to come out on top at Shen was probably our best win of the year; I anticipated perhaps a split in singles, and we were able to wrap up the dual in singles play — that’s something we haven’t done against a good opponent in some time; Mitch was down early and then got on a roll vs the very tough Holmes; Fischer probably got his signature win of his career against the big-hitting Turney — Tyler has been close and I was very proud of him — no one deserves a big win more than Tyler; Gunnar got us a key win at #3 — he got out to a big lead early and is learning how to finish now; Matt was down early, and then battled back but didn’t quite have enough for the win; Noah and Jake got us easy wins at 5 and 6, which they’ve done a good job of lately; in doubles, I though #1 was another swing match, and once we figured out their Australian-style of play, Tyler and Mitch dominated the match; Noah and Jake were up 9-6 and let their match get away — probably the only disappointment of the night — I would’ve liked a sweep in doubles — they need to keep working to finish matches.  Gunnar teamed up with Rob Nichols, and they played well and put away their younger inexperienced opponents.

Boys host Clarinda Friday in a make-up before competing Monday at Glenwood in Hawkeye 10 Conference Tournament.