The Baraboo boys tennis team added to its win streak on Thursday afternoon with a 4-3 win over Milwaukee Saint Thomas More in a non-conference dual at Campbell Park.
It was the fourth victory in four days for the T-Birds, who seem to have their doubles teams figured out as they swept the doubles flights three straight times this week and won two of the three on Thursday.
“Everything just started to click for us today. We’ve sort have been not really struggling but sort of playing down to the level of our opponent,” said senior Nick Brooks, who along with Nick McReath won 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles. “Today, we really just stepped it up and played our game and took the offense to our advantage.”
Brooks and McReath went up against a couple of inexperienced tennis players but solid athletes, which made for a tight first set. The Baraboo senior duo was forced to adjust its playing style as Saint Thomas More’s Alex Reinke and Quinton Conti were able to chase down balls with ease and used their height to smash down early lob attempts.
“Their opponents were tall athletes and really good players; (they) had an unbelievable reach,” T-Birds coach Karll Kruse said. “They also chased down a lot of our smashes and stuff; they were just really good and it was hard to put the ball away on them. But we had great shot selections and great returns, and solid first serves. Nick and Nick just played good, solid, smart tennis.”
After a 3-3 tie in the first set, Brooks and McReath won the next three games to take the set and simply made fewer errors than their opponents in the next set, winning it 6-1.
“We got our shots in more, (and) we hit serves a lot better today,” McReath said. “In the beginning of the season, we were kind of slow and weren’t hitting our shots in and now we’ve picked it up. We started showing kind of our potential from last year.”
“No. 1 doubles played their best match of the year,” he said. “They’re a really good team and I just haven’t seen what I thought I would see from them yet this year. They’ve played well all year but up until today I didn’t see that special flash that they had and tonight they showed that.”
Baraboo’s No. 2 doubles team of Miles Statz and Ryan Boukhankov has been dominant this week as well. The pair took down Matt Manaco and Jake Krusik 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.
“Miles has been such a great addition to our team, and his style of play not only helps win a lot of matches for us but it helps Ryan enjoy what he’s doing,” Kruse said. “Miles has been a great partner for Ryan, and Ryan also for Miles. When Miles was learning on the fly, Ryan was right there to help him, so it’s been pretty cool.”
At No. 3 doubles, Baraboo’s Josh Arnold and Keaton Thompte teamed up for the first time and fell 6-2, 6-3 to Mike Duda and Devin Barfoth.
In singles, T-Birds senior Aidan Carlson-Edwards had a back-and-forth opening set against Jeff Schubring, tying it 4-4 before Schubring broke serve and won the set 6-4. Carlson-Edwards ran out of steam from there, falling 6-0 in the second.
“Aidan said when he came in, four matches in a row is a little too much, and I think for a singles player who’s playing three sets a night, that might be a little much,” Kruse said. “But he played well today. Second set didn’t go his way, but he played really well in the first set and made some nice shots.”
Baraboo grabbed its other two victories at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, with senior Jake Huffaker shutting out Ben Shoman while senior Alex Kunkel cruised past Jacob Blazcyk 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Liam Arbogast stepped in at No. 4 singles and held his own, but fell 6-3, 6-3 to Tony Paniagua.
The T-Birds, who improved to 5-2 overall, will be tested today as they host Sauk Prairie for a Badger North Conference dual.
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