Disjointed day results in scrambled loss for Tiger tennis

• Buck O'Flanagan

Tiger senior Buck O’Flanagan returns a volley during the two doubles match against River Falls.

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The New Richmond boys tennis team went into last Tuesday’s dual match with River Falls in a bit of a scrambled situation.

Three of the Tigers attended the state FBLA convention on Tuesday and literally stepped from their car and onto the tennis courts for the match. Several more Tigers were playing in new roles. All this led to a disjointed performance from the Tigers in a 5-2 loss to the Wildcats.

Justice Harvieux, Mike Stoffel and Charlie Kleiner all attended the FBLA convention, so they had little time to prep for the match.

The Tigers also had to make lineup changes because of the severity of Charlie Gartner’s shoulder injury. Coach Mike Montello had hoped to have Gartner in the singles lineup, but the pain in his shoulder is getting worse. The coaches decided to try Gartner at three doubles, teaming him with Kleiner.

Pat Holland moved from three doubles to the three singles spot. Isaiah Hobbs, who had been playing three singles, moved up a step to fill Gartner’s spot at two singles.

The Tigers’ wins came at one singles and three doubles. Nick Bradish got the only win on the singles side for the Tigers, winning the one singles match in three sets.

Gartner and Kleiner combined for a 6-3, 7-5 win in their first match together at three doubles.

Montello said the flux around the team caused the Tigers to “underperform” in this match.

“Overall our performance was not very good,” Montello said.

This was the first home match for the Tigers on their new home courts at the new high school.

Schedule

The Tigers will play at Amery this Thursday in a Middle Border Conference match. The Tigers will be on their home courts next Tuesday, in a non-conference contest against Altoona.

Tags: sports, tigers, tennis, prep