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Chisago Lakes 4, Irondale 3

The strides this year by the Chisago Lakes boys tennis team were evident in their match up against the Irondale Knights.

Last year, with a veteran squad, the Wildcats were trounced by the Knights 6-1. Although both teams were hit hard by graduation, Irondale still sports seven juniors and four sophomores, along with multiple varsity returnees.

The Wildcats, on the other hand, are stacked with youngsters, and their only returning varsity player is second singles player Cam Bouwens.

All of the history set the table for the Wildcats' impressive upset over the more experienced Knights.

At first singles, Jared Rectenwal went down 3-6, 0-6, but it's tough as he is trotted out against the other team's best player every time. "Jared is getting better every match and starting to create headaches for the other team's number one," Head Coach Corey McKinnon said. "He's a real coachable kid."

Tommy Johnson was the first victor off of the court for the Wildcats. The first-year player earned his first ever singles varsity victory with a 6-4, 6-0 win. "Tommy set up a lot of shots and just played really well," McKinnon noted.

Irondale prevailed at third doubles, downing the duo of Mike Swanson and Nathan Bloom, giving the Knights a 2-1 lead in the match.

Then, things got spicy in the last four matches.

The first doubles team of Jake Sells and Brian Erickson struggled through a tiebreak in their first set, losing a tough one 6-7 (3-7) to their Irondale counterparts. In the second set, the Chisago Lakes' pair gathered their momentum and blasted to a 6-3 to even the match up. In the third set, Erickson and Sell kept their confidence high and won 6-2, evening the team match score at two. "Brian is just such a positive, upbeat guy. He's got the mental side of the game down," McKinnon said of his co-captain. "When they went down in that first set, they just kept plugging away and got on a roll."

The second doubles team of Brian Hynes and Alex Swanson had a similar match. They were blown out of the water 0-6, and it was looking like a pretty easy point for the Knights. However, McKinnon and the pair devised a strategy, swapping them so their forehands went to the outside of the court instead of the inside.

The move paid off as Hynes and Swanson started scoring some points. But, losing 3-5 it still looked like the point would be Irondale's. The two Wildcats fiercely stormed back in the second set. They won four straight points, rallying from down 3-5 to winning the set 7-5.

At that point, the Irondale duo was deflated. Hynes and Swanson continued to pound away at the tired Knights, and they blew them away in the third set, winning 6-1 to put the Wildcats up 3-2 in the team score.

Eighth grader Vinnie Gorski then finished his marathon match at third singles, losing a nail-biter. He lost the first set 2-6, but came back to take the second set in tiebreak 7-6 (7-4). In the third set, his more experienced opponent put the clamps on and won 6-4. "Vinnie did a great job even in the loss," McKinnon said. "He just kept fighting for points." 

The loss evened the match at three, and it came down Bouwens at second singles, who was battling for points all day.

In the first set, Bouwens outlasted his opponent, winning 7-6(7-4). The second set was reversed, however, when Bouwens' opponent stepped his game up and brought about a whirlwind of shots. It resulted in a 5-7 loss for Bouwens. Midway through the third set, the other matches had ended and the focus turned to Bouwens. "Cameron just took him out of his game after he weathered his storm," McKinnon explained. Bouwens came out on top, winning the third set 6-2.

Overall, the victory really impressed McKinnon because of the strides his team has taken since the beginning of the season. "All of these guys have improved so much, and the winning just goes along with it," he said. "Winning is just the byproduct of improvement."

Chisago Lakes 6, Columbia Heights 1

The Wildcats got a little bit of a breather when they breezed through the Columbia Heights Hylanders right after their marathon match with Irondale.

Rectenwal finally broke through with a big win in first singles. In fact, it was his first win at the top singles position this year. He cruised to the victory, winning 6-1, 6-0.

Bouwens also had a fairly easy match, winning 6-0, 6-1 to put the 'Cats up 2-0 early.

Bloom was the only Wildcat who conceded a point, but both him and McKinnon agreed it was just a bad day for him. "It's not a negative on the [Heights] guy, but Nathan and I both know he is better than he played that day. It's a learning experience for him," McKinnon noted.

Gorski got the Wildcats back on the winning track with a 6-4, 6-1 victory at fourth singles.

At third doubles, Mike Swanson and David Donahue smashed their way to an easy 6-0, 6-0 win to put the 'Cats up 4-1 and secure the match no matter what happened in the remaining matches.

Hynes and Alex Swanson, however, scored a win at second doubles, winning 6-4, 6-1 to extend the lead to 5-1.

The only other drama in the match came at first doubles with Erickson and Sells. The pair was dominated in their first set, losing 0-6 to the top pair from Columbia Heights. The two stormed back to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-2, though, and the match ended at 6-1. "Erickson and Sells just got more aggressive and got their groove going in the later sets," McKinnon explained. "Once they got going and hitting their spots, they made a huge difference with just a few inches."

Chisago Lakes 4, Robbinsdale Cooper 3

Another conference match, another interesting day for the Comeback 'Cats.

Chisago Lakes started out rough in almost all of their matches on the day. Bouwens at second singles, and Erickson and Sells at first doubles were the only two that won the first set in their matches.

Bouwens went on to grab his fourth straight win, sweeping his opponent in two sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Erickson and Sells, though had a tougher time winning their match. After winning the first set 6-2, they went on to drop the second set 4-6, and the second set 6-7, (5-7) in tiebreak.

At third singles, Bloom put a complete match together. Staying strong physically and mentally against his opponent, Bloom crushed the competition 6-2, 6-1. "He had more pop in his step, and just played a great game," McKinnon said of Bloom.

At fourth singles, Gorski struggled through the first set, losing 4-6. McKinnon noticed a flaw, however, in the Cooper players game, and was approaching Gorski to let him know, but before he said a word, Gorski pointed out the same weakness to the coach. McKinnon said that really impressed him, especially coming from an eighth grader. Gorski worked his opposition's back hand for the next two sets, and won 6-1, 6-0.

With the team match tied at three each, the Wildcats had another barnburner to decide the NSC match up. Swanson and Donahue, who had just picked up his first varsity win of the year against Heights, had dropped the first set of their third doubles match 2-6. They battled back to win the second set 7-5 to even things up.

After everyone else was done, the two tandems were still blasting shots back in forth at each other, but the 'Cats team had a big lead in the third set at 5-2. All of a sudden, the Cooper duo started chipping away. Al of a sudden it was 5-4. And then it got to 5-5, and things looked like they were slipping away from Swanson and Donahue.

After a quick regrouping, the pair went on lockdown, winning the next two points to win the match without going into an exhausting third-set tiebreak.

Benilde-St. Margaret's 7, Chisago Lakes 0

The three wins on the week left the Wildcats at 5-2 in the conference, but they knew a tough task awaited in the Red Knights from Benilde-St. Margaret's.

"The guys approached the game well," McKinnon noted. "We just tried to implement some new things into our games."

None of the Wildcats were able to stay close with the more-seasoned and supremely talented BSM squad, but McKinnon saw one-silver lining in the tough loss.

"We've had a few big losses this year, but in our experience this year, we've played a lot better right after a big loss," he said.

With only a few more matches left to go before sectionals, McKinnon hopes some of the guys take the big loss against BSM to heart and start playing better tennis. When it comes to sectionals, if someone gets hot, it can be a wild ride.

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