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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – On Friday and Saturday it was time for the individual part of the Eastern Dakota Conference boys tennis tournament in Fargo for the Valley City Hi-Liners. 

Results are listed below: 

Singles Draw

Round One:

White lost to P.Kavasseri(WF) 6-2, 6-1

Evan Haglund lost to R.Advani(WF) 7-6(3),7-5

L.Williams lost to J.Votava(GFC) 6-1, 6-0

Consolation Round One:

White received a Bye

Haglund lost to J.Jelinski(SH) 6-1,6-0

L.Williams lost to G.Wu(GFC) 6-3, 6-0

Consolation Round Two:

White lost to J.Mohr(GFRR) 6-1,6-1

Doubles Draw

Round One:

#6Ondracek/B.Miller received a Bye

Burchill/R.Miller received a Bye

Round Two:

#6Ondracek/B.Miller beat S.Swartz/T.Hansen(WFS) 6-0,6-1

Burchill/R.Miller lost to #8N.Thoreson/Z.Diekman(FD) 7-6(5),6-4

Quarterfinals:  STATE QUALIFIER

#6Ondracek/B.Miller lost to #3P.Thakker/K.Wolf(GFRR) 3-6,6-2,6-1

Consolation Round One:

Burchill/R.Miller beat B.Laber/L.Strand(FN) 4-6,6-4,7-6(3)

Consolation Round Two:

Burchill/R.Miller beat T.Laven/N.Eslinger(FD) 6-4,6-7(4),6-4

Consolation Quarterfinals:  STATE QUALIFIER

Burchill/R.Miller lost to #7B.Schulz/C.Steffes(FS) 6-1, 6-3

#6Ondracek/B.Miller beat J.Langenwalter/A.Saric(W) 6-3,6-1

Consolation Semifinals:

#6Ondracek/B.Miller beat #7B.Schulz/C.Steffes 7-5,2-6,6-3

Consolation Finals:

#6Ondracek/B.Miller beat #5D.O’Donnell/N.Young(SH) 6-4,7-6(2)

 

Thoughts:

We put our top 4 players into doubles, so we knew the singles draw was going to be tough for us.  The singles players battled, but could not pick up a victory.  Evan Haglund had the singles match of the day, playing the WF #2 player very tough. He lost the first set in a tie-breaker and had the 2nd set tied at 5 before the Advani pulled away to win the match.  This will be great experience for next year as we had 2 10th graders and an 8th grader playing in the singles tourney.

Hunter and Riley had themselves an EDC tournament.  They put a big scare into the #8 seed in the opening match, being up 5-4 30-0, then 6-5 30-0, and then up 5-4 in the tiebreaker before dropping the first set. In the second set, we played some more great tennis, but lost the match by a break at 6-4.  In the consolation first round, we split sets and then fell behind 1-4 in the third.  We battled back to force a deciding tie-breaker in which we stepped up our game and put away a Fargo North team that beat us in the regular season. In the consolation 2nd round, neither team was playing aggressive in the first two sets in which we split.  Talking to our team during set break, we convinced them to be aggressive and to go get the ball on poaches. They put that to good use and blew them out in the first 3 games of the set. Our opponents upped their game, but we had enough momentum to finish off the match to set up a state qualifying match on Saturday morning. In the state qualifier, Schulz and Steffes, the 7th seed from south were too good. These are two seniors that went through the wringer at Fargo South.  We beat Fargo South in a regional play in where Steffes lost to Dustin Miller several years ago.  Then last year, Brandon and Dalton beat them in a state qualifier 7-6,6-7,7-6 in which they had 3 match points against us. This year as seniors, they knocked off Red River in the regular season to finish as team Tri-EDC champions, took 2nd to Red River in the team regionals, and now state qualified in the individual tourney.  Congratulations to them and the whole Fargo South team.

Hunter and Riley fought hard the whole way. I hope that the success this year and the defeat in the state qualifying match motivate them both to lead this team to great things in the next two years. These two sophomores are only in their 2nd year of playing tennis and keep improving. Our tennis team will go as far as these two will lead us in these next years. 

Dalton and Brandon earned the 6th seed and had one of the best draws possible.  In the first round, they had Sheyenne’s #5 and #6 players to get by to set up a huge quarterfinal against Red River, the #3 seed. In that match, Dalton and Brandon played the best match I’ve seen from the Hi-Liner boys in my coaching career. The teamwork, the belief in themselves and each other, the shot selection, the movement, the strategy all were top notch. We took the first set, but lost the next two. The Red River team upped their game coupled with limiting their unforced errors to win the match. Dalton and Brandon took the loss in stride and came out the next day with a workman like attitude. In the state qualifier, we did enough to get past a pesky Wahpeton team to make it to state for the 2nd year in a row for these two. This set up a rematch from last year’s state qualifier against Shulz and Steffes from South. We took that match in three sets to get to the consolation championship. This set up a rematch from last year’s 7th place match which we lost – but not this time. Brandon and Dalton won in two sets to finish the highest in the individual tournament of any Hi-Liner boys in the last 10 years at 5th place. Dalton and Brandon figured out how to play at a high level all the time.  After a bad point, they are right back at it. After losing two on a change-over, they are playing winning tennis the next point.  I hope the rest of our team was watching carefully the teamwork, attitude, confidence, movement of these two.  These seniors finished off their last regional tournament playing by far the best tennis of their careers.  I hope they can continue that going into the state tournament next weekend.

Brandon and Dalton finished 5th from the East and will face the 4th place finisher Ty Nygaard and Conner Templeton, Minot’s #2 team, at 1pm at Choice Health and Fitness in Grand Forks this coming Friday in the opening round. 

Dalton was named All-EDC for the 2nd time.  He is the first Hi-Liner boys tennis player to accomplish this in over 10 years.