Singles:
1. Michael O’Brien lost to Alex Kaldahl 2-6,2-6
2. Ryley Smith lost to Brady Pleuger 6-7(3),6-2,3-6
3. Hunter Andreason lost to Edoardo Tavani 5-7,6-7 (4)
4. Will Fuelberth def. Jack O’Hara 6-3,7-5
5. Jason Thorn lost to Joe Sherbon 1-6,1-6
6. Tully Reed lost to Robert Stocco 4-6,2-6
*No doubles were played, as post-season play ends as soon as a team reaches 5 match wins
The Spencer boys tennis team will advance to a substate in Fort Dodge Saturday May 24th. They will take on Fort Dodge St. Edmond. Also, LeMars takes on Clear Lake. After the semi-final round, the winners will compete to determine the team advancing to the State Team Tennis Tournament.
Comments:
Even though we didn’t come away with a win, I am pleased with how the guys competed today. We played Spencer tougher than the previous two meetings, especially at 2, 3 & 4 singles. Will once again played an excellent match and defeated Jack O’Hara for the second time in as many meetings. And both Ryley and Hunter were very close to getting wins. If we could have won just one of those two matches we would have been able to take it to doubles and seen what happened. But credit to Spencer – they were able to close both of those matches out and prevent that from happening. Ryley really had Pleuger frustrated, especially in the second set. And Ryley played well in the third set, keeping things even until the very end, when Brady was able to really compose himself and play three solid games to finish the match. And Hunter had some excellent forehands, especially when Edoardo came to the net. If he hadn’t gotten into a hole at the opening of the tiebreak I believe he would have pulled it out and won in the third set, with both the momentum going his way, and fatigue evident in his opponent. Overall it’s great to see the improvement over the course of the season, as Spencer was the first opponent we faced, and while we had a few sets that were 10-7 or 10-6, the level of tennis from our guys wasn’t nearly what it was today. They got better each meet they played, they gave it everything they had, and they went out strong, so you can’t ask for much more than that as a coach. I’m extremely proud of what this team accomplished. Some of the coaches and players in the conference didn’t expect our team to finish second in the conference tournament, or third in the regular season and at districts. I knew they had that potential, and I am very pleased that they reached that potential through hard work and a willingness to learn and grow. This has been a terrific group of guys – varsity, JV and exhibition – and the great news is the majority of them will be back next season! And I am very much looking forward to taking our two senior leaders, Michael and Ryley, to the individual state doubles tournament at the end of the month to see what they can do!
Spirit Lake Okoboji Coach Dan Taylor
