The Ellsworth tennis team played a single meet last week, losing to Lake City 7-0 on Thursday in Lake City against the Tigers. However, the matches had bright spots and sets.

Originally set to host Regis on Tuesday, the Panthers’ meet got rained out and rescheduled to this Thursday leaving them with just one day of varsity tennis play.

Sophomore Adan Benitez Mendez continued his strong rookie campaign, pushing the #4 singles player from Lake City to a third set, race to 10 tiebreaker, which is something he’s done in every match so far this season. He eventually lost 10-7, but the future is bright for him going forward. Carter Price, Ellsworth’s #2 singles player, also had a good round.

On the doubles side there were some struggles, but the #3 team of Max Olson and Matthew Lundstrom played very strong sets, as did #2 team Landon Lee and Parker Bierbrauer.

Head Coach Beth Friedrichsen says their round at Lake City was a learning experience for the team.

“There were so many close matches, and the boys really grew just in the hour or so that they played,” Friedrichsen said. “It was nice to play a team that was a little closer in our ability and talent.” 

Coach Friedrichsen says that at one point she thought they might win three matches, but it didn't end up that way, which is okay. 

“What we are learning is that it is important to stay focused all the time, which can be a real challenge, and we are learning that there is really no replacing experience,” Friedrichsen said. “We have been writing personal goals before each match, and all of the boys met those goals, so that was a win. Hopefully, we take some lessons from last week as we have a big week this week.”

Those lessons are going to keep coming for Ellsworth as the players look to build their team culture surrounding the nine new recruits on their 12-man team, the biggest they’ve had in years.

With the postponement, the Panthers will gear up for what is now a three-meet slate of games. First, they travel to Amery High School on Monday, and then they return home to host a pair of meets on Tuesday against Baldwin-Woodville and then the makeup game against Regis on Thursday. All meets this week begin at 4:15 p.m.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats lost a pair of varsity tennis events last week, first at Eau Claire Memorial High School on Tuesday 7-0 and then at UW-River Falls Perkins Stadium on Thursday against Menomonie 7-0.

Like many teams this past week, they had their schedules cut short due to weather. Originally, the Wildcats were supposed to have a third meet on Friday at Osceola, but that got cancelled due to general shoddiness of conditions lately.

Singles players #2 Henry Whipkey and #3 Peregrine “Perry” Kotz played especially close in their matches against Eau Claire Memorial, and on the doubles side, #1 Nolan Tody and Carson Stacy had a good round as well.

Thursday’s rounds featured a good singles performance from #1 Sam Majerus who pushed Menomonie’s #1 to the very end, and Stacy, who operated in the #4 singles spot this time, also played it down to the wire in his portion. The doubles’ side wasn’t as strong again, but the duo of Tody and Josiah Domeyer performed very well as the #2 team on the day.

Although they came up short each time, Head Coach Joe Young says he likes that they were competitive in all but one of the matches against both teams.

“Six of the seven matches could have gone our way with more quality in our finishing shots and more aggressive play from our doubles teams,” Young said. “Menomonie is first in the conference and Eau Claire Memorial is second at the moment. So, to be pushing their players as we are is encouraging.”

Looking ahead, the Wildcats have another big week of tennis on tap, although they will start it with a postponement as the weather Monday wasn’t cooperating once again. Play will hopefully resume Thursday when they travel to New Richmond to play the Tigers at 4 p.m., and then it finishes up on Saturday with a tournament in La Crosse at Green Island Tennis Courts at 9 a.m. Other teams at the tournament include Altoona, Aquinas and Osceola.