Boys tennis has their eyes on the prize
At practice, the boys tennis team works hard while having fun. They push each other to be better people on and off the court. “We have a real nice group of ninth graders that came up this year and are excited for what is to come. We have a nice core to keep building on for coming years as our JV team has done very well this year, it has been fun and we look forward to where we go from here,” commented Kahl.
The Stillwater boys tennis team is playing well and looking to make a splash in the section tournament, hoping to eventually get to the state tournament.
The current season was a much anticipated year for the boys tennis team as they have a big group of seniors and they got new home courts to play on this year. The tennis season is almost over as they have a few matches left before they go into sections where their season could end any day, but this team has the potential to make a deep run.
The team is hoping to improve on last year where they were fifth in their section and become one of the top three teams. They feel that they have what it takes to do that, now they need to make it happen.
“Our expectations are to do better than we did last year where we took fifth place in sections,” said sophomore Jack Leach.
Head coach Dave Kahl said, “We believed that we could be in the top half of the conference and certainly one of the top four or five teams in the section. Coming in that is what we were shooting for and hopefully we are going to achieve that.”
As they were hoping, the team is succeeding in that they are having a more successful season thus far than they did last year. They are closer to the top of the section, whereas last year they where in the middle of their section. With all of the seniors, this is not a big surprise to many.
“Right now we are 4-2 in the conference and we have two conference matches left versus a couple good teams. We are in reach of the conference. The section tournament is a little ways off yet, but we should get seeded in the top four so we are feeling pretty good about where we are,” commented Kahl.
Our conference meets are going to be a big bang. They will be matches where they test our mental strength.
— Cooper Hanson
With the success so far some of their expectations have gone up and they do not want to just get a good seed in the section tournament, they want to win it.
“Our expectations are to now make it to the section finals,” said Leach.
With the end of the season coming the team has some big matches coming up that could play a big role in section seedings. With success in the section they could hopefully visit the state tournament.
“Our conference meets are going to be a big bang. They will be matches where they test our mental strength,” commented junior Cooper Hanson.
Kahl commented, “We got this week which is a busy week finishing up a non conference match today (5-5) but then Wednesday and Thursday we have our last two conference matches. Then Friday and Saturday we have a tournament over in Eau Claire. Then the section tournament starts next week.”
As bright as the end of this season looks bright for the Ponies, but the upcoming teams look to be solid as well which bodes well for the tennis program as they look to become a powerhouse.
“We have a real nice group of ninth graders that came up this year. We have a nice core to keep building on for coming years as our JV team has done very well this year, it has been fun and we look forward to where we go from here,” commented Kahl.
The Ponies will be looking to end the season strong and win a section title and the young guys who show some promise will look to continue the success in coming years.
Matt Salmi plays football and has a younger sister. He has a dog and he does not like cats. His favorite part of the year is summer. He likes to go fishing....
Megan Fayler • May 31, 2015 at 9:36 pm
This article has very good background information on the overall tennis season. The quotes are very informative and clearly there were good questions asked to find them. It was a well-written article.
Dan Justesen • May 31, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Good update on the tennis team! It is cool to compare predictions that the team has to where they actually end up! Good quotes and great job interviewing Mr. Kahl.
parkeoli000 • May 28, 2015 at 10:13 pm
I love how you referred to their past success and then fast forwarded to the current part of the season and where they stand and expect to stand. Strong interviews to go with an interesting article
Parker Estenson • May 20, 2015 at 5:33 pm
This article does a great job of looking back at their past season, and showing how they have improved from that and their new goals. Great interviews really added to the content and flow of this article. Very fun to read!
Stephanie Nielsen • May 20, 2015 at 2:01 pm
This article provided a lot of information about the tennis team! The quotes also provideed a lot of information about the players and how they feel about their sport. This was a very well written article!