By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON-The Jaguars boys tennis team won two hotly contested matches down the stretch to propel them onto a 6-1 victory over the Manitowoc Ships (May 3).
Jacob Hanson (one singles) and Aiden Newberg engaged in a baseline dual that lasted over two hours.
Newberg struck first to take the opening set 7-5.
Hanson then responded with a dominating second set in which he used his powerful strokes to counterpunch the loopy heavy topspin style of Newberg.
The third set went back and forth with neither player gaining an advantage of more than a game.
At five all, Hanson held his serve to go up 6-5.
With everything on the line, the Jaguars top ace hit two forehand winners and got a fortunate kick on match point from the net-gods to win the match 7-5 in the decisive set.
“We were having problems with the moonballs in the first set,” said Scott Conradt, Jaguars Boys Tennis Coach. “We made good adjustments to start set number two, and Jacob played really good tennis when it mattered most. I was proud of the way he mentally gutted out this victory.”
At number four singles, Sam Lokken fell behind 4-1 to his Ships opponent before rallying to take the first set in a tiebreaker.
Ironically enough, the second set ended in the same fashion; only this time the tiebreaker went to Jacob Rivest of the Ships.
After two hours of tennis, a third set still awaited. Both players left the court to gather their thoughts.
The overall team match had been decided, but neither individual wanted to lose after fighting and scrapping this long.
Lokken quickly went up 3-1 after breaking Rivest’s momentum and then held his serve the rest of the way to win the three-hour marathon 6-3 in the finale.
The number one doubles team of Kole Kolinski and Colin Chapman dropped only four games the entire match to improve to 8-1 on the season.
No team in the area has beaten the duo to date.
Their resume consists of wins over De Pere, Notre Dame, Watertown, and Waunakee.
The newly formed tandem of Grant Atwood and Alex Steinfest dominated at two doubles in winning their match in straight sets.
The team connected on 23 overheads and hit six aces on the day.
Other winners included Bailey Conradt and Sam Spika in singles.
“Manitowoc has a good team,” added Conradt. “ I felt like we were in some trouble at the start of the match, but the guys played inspired tennis in the second and third sets. The 6-1 victory was very misleading today. We have a few days off from our next match. Hopefully, the guys can get some rest and we can finish strong in the FRCC.”
The Jaguars evened their overall record at 3-3 and will be back in action May 8 when they host the Redwings of Sheboygan South.
Ashwaubenon 6 Manitowoc 1
Singles:
1 Hanson (Ash) over Newberg (Man) 5-7, 6-2, 7-5
2 Conradt (Ash) over Jed Robertson (Man) 6-3, 6-2
3 Spika (Ash) over Tyler Lambert (Man) 7-5, 6-4
4 Lokken (Ash) over Rivest (Man) 7-6, 6-7, 6-3
Doubles:
1 Kolinski and Chapman (Ash) over Nick Manis and Jack Rotter (Man) 6-2, 6-2
2 Steinfest and Atwood (Ash) over Alex Myers and Chandler Holschbach (Man) 6-1, 6-3
3 Chris Prince and Laken Schultz (Man) over Justin Heller and Aidan Christensen (Ash) 6-4, 6-3
