VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)- Valley City boys’ tennis hosted West Fargo Tuesday afternoon. The Hi-Liners came away with a 5-4 win to get their 3rd victory in a row and even their EDC record at 2-2 and their overall mark improves to 3-3. Thursday Valley City play Fargo North at home.

 

 

VC 5

WF 4

 

Singles:

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  1.  Riley Miller lost to Joe Beske 6-2, 6-1
  2.  Liam Williams beat Pad Kavasseri 0-6, 7-5, 10-7
  3.  Collin White lost to Rishab Advani 6-3, 6-2
  4.  Jack Ingstad lost to Het Mehta 6-4, 6-3
  5.  Zach Baumgartner beat Sohan Mallik 7-5, 6-0
  6.  Blake Triebold beat Carson Harrington 6-4, 6-1

 

Doubles:

  1.  White/Ingstad lost to Beske/Mehta 6-4, 6-1
  2.  Miller/Austin Rogelstad beat Advani/Mallik 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
  3.  Williams/Triebold beat Kavasseri/Harrington 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4

 

Coach’s Comments

We created a doubles line-up in an attempt to solidify two doubles victories.  Joe Beske took second last year at the state tournament as is a phenomenal player while the rest of West Fargo’s team is beatable.  By dropping Riley and Liam into two and three doubles, we strengthen three doubles while not losing too much ground on two doubles.  The game plan was to win two and three doubles while competing for one doubles which our team executed.  This set up singles where we needed to win three out of six to win the match while West Fargo needed to win four out of six for a victory.

Riley and Austin played for the first time together today at #2 doubles.  I expected Riley to take over that match and Austin to raise his game to match Riley.  Riley didn’t take over until the middle of the second set, but then was relentless.  Austin raised his game also and finished the third set only dropping one game.  Riley then had the joy of playing last year’s state runner up in singles.  It was a good match for Riley to gain experience against a top player in the state.

Collin and Jack were not expected to win against West Fargo’s #1 doubles team, so we were able to play loose as there were no expectations of winning.  Without the fear of losing, these two played the best doubles they have all year.  Jack was more consistent with his serving and groundstrokes while Collin moved into the ball at the net and put away balls.  This is how doubles should feel if we are underdogs or favorites in a match.  Just go play tennis and let the chips fall where they may.

Blake and Liam cruised to a first set victory.  In the second set, both got a little tentative and the set fell through our fingers.  In the third set, we played a little more aggressive and loose winning the match.  In singles, Blake started out tentative and then shook that off and just played to win the match.  If he and Liam were to put that into action in doubles, a third set would have been unnecessary tonight!

Zach continues his winning ways.  He played a close first set, pulling it out 7-5 and then cruised in the second set 6-0.  As Zach finds ways to win points and games, it is tough to write about him because his last five singles matches he closed out with relative ease in the second set without controversy.  Keep it up Zach!

The match came down to Liam at #2 singles.  Liam lost the first set 0-6.  In the second set, Liam started playing loose and to win each point.  He started playing aggressive approach shots and then being a monster at the net.  He came back in the second set from 1-4 down to up 5-4 before closing the set out 7-5.  The match now stood at 4-4 with the winner of Liam’s match winning the dual.  As we had long three setters in doubles and the pace of play in Liam’s match was slow, the sun had set at the end of the second set and darkness was becoming an issue.

Both coaches agreed that the third set needed to be shortened to a super tiebreaker to be able to finish tonight.  It was a see saw tiebreaker until 5-6 when Liam double faulted to go down 7-5 in the breaker to 10 points.  At that point, it would have been easy for Liam to throw in the towel.  Instead, Liam hit the zone.  He didn’t miss a shot the rest of the tiebreaker and continued to be offensive and take the net over.  Up 8-7 with the next two points on his serve – he bombed two aces to close out the match and secure the third win in a row for Valley City!  What a match!