Tiger tennis surprised by B-W

• Cody Chouinard

New Richmond junior Cody Chouinard makes his toss to deliver a serve during the Tigers' win over Durand last week.

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The New Richmond boys tennis team was able to defeat Baldwin-Woodville in a non-conference meet on May 1.

When the teams met again five days later, this time in a Middle Border Conference match, the Tigers couldn’t duplicate their success. B-W upended the Tigers boy a 4-3 score in last Thursday’s match.

Tiger coach Mike Montello had warned the players that nothing was guaranteed, just because of their recent win over the Blackhawks.

“I don’t think overconfidence was the issue as much as just not being as plugged in as they needed to be,” Montello said.

The Tigers led 2-1 with four matches still on the courts.

“I felt we had a chance to win all four matches,” Montello said.

Instead, the Tigers could only win one of those four matches.

Two of the Tigers’ wins came in singles matches. Justice Harvieux was clearly superior in a 6-1, 6-1 win at one singles. Charlie Gartner maintained his unbeaten season with a 7-5, 6-1 win at four singles.

The doubles win came at the two flight. Pat Meath and Charlie Kleiner are starting to develop a working chemistry here. They started out down 0-3 in the first set but rallied to win the match 6-4, 6-4.

“Meath played very aggressively and Kleiner had some nice volleys, particularly from his backhand,” Montello said.

Win over Durand

The loss to B-W came two days after the Tigers scored a 4-3 win over Durand. Durand only had seven players, two of them from Mondovi, so the Panthers had to forfeit the four singles and three doubles flights.

The seven players Durand had were all capable players. Durand’s one singles player is a foreign exchange student who has tore through every conference opponent.

The win on the singles side for the Tigers came from Cody Chouinard at three singles. He scored a 6-4, 6-0 win. His opponent played a patient defensive style. Chouinard adjusted and dominated the second set.

The doubles win was produced by Meath and Kleiner. They had little trouble, scoring a 6-1, 6-1 win in the two doubles flight.

Eau Claire tournament

The Tigers were severely overmatched when they played in a tournament in Eau Claire on Saturday. The Tigers earned one win in three matches during the day.

The Tigers opened the day facing Hopkins, one of the top programs in Minnesota. After getting swept by Hopkins, the Tigers faced Wausau East. East was coming off its first loss of the season, against Eau Claire Memorial.

In the third round of the tournament the Tigers faced another perennial power in Oshkosh North. That’s where the Tigers got their only win. Mike Stoffel and Jordy Kvam won at four doubles.

Schedule

New Richmond will be the site for the Middle Border Conference Tennis Tournament next Tuesday. Play in the conference meet is expected to begin at 9 a.m.

Tags: sports, tigers, tennis, prep