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Thomas Gillach and Blake Lizotte were at the mercy of the draw when it came to their second straight doubles state tournament berth. They came across a St. Cloud Tech in the first round but knew they would have to get past defending state champions Carter Mason and Anthony Rosa in the second round if they wanted to go deep.

They got their rematch after winning the first round match up, but it didn’t go as planned.

Rosa and Mason broke Lizotte’s serve all game, despite some fiery points from the senior, and that led to a 6-2, 6-2 loss from the CL pair.

Their first round match up was a bit more taxing than they hoped against Nicholas Portz and Lucas Conboy.

Gillach and Lizotte won the first set fairly handily, 6-2, and hoped to cruise into a match up with Rosa and Carter on fresh legs. But, Portz and Conboy found some powerful strokes in the second set and kept Gillach and Lizotte off balance throughout, winning 6-0. In the third set, the Wildcats buckled down and eliminated the errors and went on the offensive instead of waiting around. The strategy reversed the result from the second set as CL won 6-0 to move on, but a third set hadn’t been a part of their plan.

In the second round against Rosa and Mason, the Eden Prairie pair took the early lead 1-0 in the first set. On Gillach’s serve, however, the ‘Cats held and tied the score up at one apiece. That’s where EP took over though. They held serve before breaking Lizotte’s serve and holding serve again, giving them a commanding 5-1 lead. Gillach was able to hold but when service went back to Eden Prairie, they finished the set out with a 6-2 win.

The second set followed the exact same blueprint for the two teams. There was a few energetic, highly skilled rallies that decided a few of the points, but they mostly came out in favor of Rosa and Mason. Lizotte and Gillach just couldn’t get that big point when they needed it, falling 6-2.

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