Oskaloosa Boys Tennis At Qualifying Tournament
by Tony Witt
The Oskaloosa boys tennis team competed in the individual district state qualifying tennis tournament at Pella Christian yesterday on a perfect day to play tennis.
Jakob and Ethan Stek teamed up as doubles partners and started off upsetting the #4 seed from Davis County in the first round in three sets(6-7(5-7),6-2,6-2). The Stek brother’s started off agressivly and built a lead in the first set going up 5-2 but couldn’t close out the set and ended up losing the first in a tiebreaker. They bounced back with two very solid sets to get the win. The Stek brother’s continued playing aggressive tennis and beat a Pella Christian team that they had lost to in the regular season dual meet. They really played a great second match against the Pella Christian team and beat them
convincingly 6-4,6-1. With that win it set up a match against the #1 seeded and eventual district champion team from Pella. They lost that match 6-0 6-0 but had a lot of really great points with a Pella doubles team that should be in the top four at the state tennis tournament that they qualified for. Jakob and Ethan then had to play one more match against the # doubles team from Pella Christian for the 3rd and 4th place finishers. The Stek brother’s had the leads in both of the sets but couldn’t find a way to close the match and lost in two very close sets 7-6(7-4),7-5 to finish in 4th place in the district tournament, which is pretty darn good for 2 first year players. It has been pretty awesome to see how much they kept improving with every match and every practice and it really showed with them getting 4th place.
Myles Strait unfortunately got a bad draw and drew into playing the #1 seed and eventual district champion from Pella. Myles played good but the but lost 6-1,6-0. Cam Cassens played well but lost to the #1 player from Centerville in a closely contested match losing 6-3,6-3. Jacob Jones and Cooper Rupprecht were doubles partners and won their first match that took 2 hours. They won the first set 6-4 then lost the second set 6-2 and won the match in the third set tiebreaker 7-6(7-2). That was a great win for them and they played a great match, however they then had to play the #2 seed from Pella and lost 6-1,6-0.
