Searles faces formidable opponent; Regis gets key points in doubles

WIAA DIV. 2 STATE BOYS TENNIS

The results weren’t what Medford’s Logan Searles, Kevin Damm and Tahtankka Damm wanted, but they left the WIAA Division 2 boys tennis individual state tournament with smiles on their faces having enjoyed their court time at The Sports Core in Kohler.

The Damms got the action started Thursday morning with an outdoor match against familiar foes from Eau Claire Regis Jack Merrick and Anderson Lowry, who swept them in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. The action moved indoors for Searles, who faced Andrew Minorik of Appleton Xavier in singles play. After a slow start, Minorik was impressive over the last set and a half and eliminated Searles 7-5, 6-0.

“It was still a good way to end the season,” Tahtankka Damm said. “It was cool to be able to get here.”

“It was a good time. I had fun,” Kevin Damm said.

“It was fun. This is a pretty nice place,” Searles said.

Searles looked like he had a chance to earn Medford’s first state victory in boys tennis in recent memory when he jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, using some strong first serves and forcing Minorik into some unforced errors.

But the match settled into more of a baseline-to-baseline match and Minorik found his groove. The top player for the second-seeded team in this Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 team state tournament, Minorik showed his 10-10 record coming in was not indicative of the type of player the Xavier junior is.

“I think what was clicking early was that he wasn’t clicking early,” Searles said. “Once he started turning on the jets, his best was better than my best. That’s basically how it was.”

Minorik got his first game and then overcame a couple of Searles aces to earn a break and pull within 3-2. Minorik tied it, then Searles’ off-speed ace clinched a game that put Searles back ahead 4-3, but Minorik kept the pressure on, taking the lead and clinching the set on a tough ace in the 12th game.

In the second set, Minorik had a counter for seem- ingly every tactic Searles tried.

“He was just all-around solid,” Searles said. “I mean I was playing better in the first set. I had a slump in the middle and then toward the end I started picking it up a little bit. He was just good. He was full throttle in the second set. I was trying to move up and do stuff to him. I’d even hit some pretty good shots and he’d get them back in better spots.”

Searles ended a solid season in flight-one singles at 10-7. Two of his losses were to GNC Player of the Year Jacob Weddle of Rhinelander and another was to Garrett Husnick of Antigo, who also fell in a first-round Division 2 state match Thursday.

Minorik went on to lose 6-0, 6-4 on Friday to thirdseeded Max Watchmaker, a sophomore from University School of Milwaukee.

Top-seeded senior Alex Sviatoslavsky of Madison Edgewood completed a 26-0 season by beating secondseeded freshman Adrian Yan of Brookfield Academy (16-4) 6-1, 6-0 in the state championship match on Saturday. Fifth-seeded Teddy Wong (15-4), a junior from Dominican/Eastbrook Academy won the third-place match 6-3, 6-0 over sixth-seeded Dayne Lindow (27-4), a junior from East Troy.

The Damms went into Thursday hoping to avenge a 6-3, 6-2 win the Regis team got against them in a May 17 dual meet held in Medford.

“Hitting winners against them is going to be difficult because that’s what they’re built on doing,” Kevin Damm said the day before the match. “They’re built on hitting winners. As long as we don’t make the mistakes they’re a team that has a tendency to kind of shoot themselves in the foot a little bit. They go with power shots and that can create unforced errors.”

Unfortunately, the majority of unforced errors came from Medford’s side of the net in the first set.

After quickly falling behind 2-0, the third game went to deuce. Tahtankka’s winning lob gave the Damms the advantage and Merrick whiffed on a shot to make it 2-1. The Raiders had game point in game four and a chance to tie the set at 2-2. But Regis fought them off, won the game and then surged to the 6-1 win.

“I don’t think they necessarily overpowered us.” Kevin Damm said. “They were just winning that extra point we couldn’t win. It even went that way in the first set a lot of times. They were winning points. There were just a few where we had to play a little catch-up and they had us on our heels a little bit. We knew they’d try to get us on our heels. Then we started attacking and it got a lot closer.”

The second set was much more competitive. Kevin Damm’s ace helped secure game two and tie it at 1-1. Regis went ahead 3-1, but the last three games all went to prolonged deuce points where the advantages went back and forth. Regis just found ways to win all those games.

“We definitely did play better than the score reflected,” Tahtankka Damm said. “There were a lot of close games in there that just didn’t go our way.”

He added that the plan of keeping the ball in play long enough to get Regis to make mistakes worked to an extent.

“I think we were doing what we wanted to do out there. It just wasn’t the result we wanted,” Tahtankka Damm said.

Merrick, who is more animated and vocal on the court than most players, disputed an out call made by the Raiders on one of his serves in the second set and from that point, the intensity on both sides went up a notch.

“I think energy just went up,” Kevin Damm said. “I think the other team allowed us to turn it on by kind of making us mad.”

The Damms, who were added to the state field as special qualifiers, finished the year 8-8. The Regis team saw their season end on Friday at 13-5 when the eighth-seeded team of Michael McGuire and Ben McGuire of Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs beat them 6-4, 6-0.

The top-seeded team of juniors Drew Buckholdt and Pranav Gogineni of Brookfield Academy (13-5) won the state championship Saturday 6-2, 6-4 over second-seeded Andrew Bechthold and Shaan Sharma (8-4) from the University School of Milwaukee. Fourth-seeded seniors Hayden Householder and Tanner Witt of New Berlin Eisenhower (16-10) won the third-place match over unseeded Ty Rondestvedt and Dan Harris of Altoona (19-5) in a third-set tiebreaker 5-7, 7-5, 10-7.