Mitchell Kernels set for final test at state tennis tournament

Ryan T. Deal, The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
·3 min read

May 17—SIOUX FALLS — The Mitchell High School boys tennis team has been preparing for this stage.

The Kernels will play in the Class A state tennis tournament Monday and Tuesday in Sioux Falls. Mitchell has prepared for the two-day tournament with a host matches all season and coach Pat Moller hopes it pays dividends this week.

"The state tournament is a grind and there's a lot of tennis," Moller said. "We've played a lot of tennis during the season. We maybe play more matches than a lot of teams do in a season. We went through that long stretch around the Rapid City Invite where we played a ton of tennis. We did all that in preparation for that rigorous schedule that you have to play at the state tournament. Hopefully that has done what I intended it to do and it's given us the mental and physical fortitude to be able to come out on top and maybe have an advantage at the end of Day 2 at the state tournament."

The Kernels are coming off a fourth-place finish at the recent Eastern South Dakota Conference meet. Mitchell was in second place following singles play but faded down the stretch to finish fourth.

Mitchell did not win a singles or doubles championship, but won five of its six first-round matches and reached the finals three times. But in doubles play, fortunes changed as the Kernels dropped two matches in the first round.

Moller is banking on turning the experience into advantage at state.

"Hopefully we can learn from that going into the state tournament and make sure that we do a better job of resetting and getting ready — mentally ready and physically ready for doubles after singles," Moller said. "Tennis is one of those sports that it's played with a lot of ups and downs and there's a lot of resets. We just didn't do a very good job of resetting after singles to play our best tennis in doubles."

It was also another valuable learning experience for the Kernels, who have a host of players playing in their first state tournament.

"We only had two players that had experienced an ESD tournament before this year or any tournament like that," Moller said. "So that's the beauty of that tournament is it does give those boys that experience before they get to the state tournament and we definitely spent some time talking about that and we are going to do the best we can to put ourselves in a better position for the state tournament."

Macon Larson returned to the lineup at the ESD after being sidelined with a shoulder injury. He took third at Flight 1, rebounding from a 10-7 semifinal loss to Yankton's Gage Becker to beat Aberdeen Central's Gabe Goetz 8-1 in the third-place match.

"He's had a couple good days of practice and the biggest thing for him is just having confidence in his shoulder and just playing on it," Moller said. "I think he's been gaining a little more of that every day."

Flight No. 2 singles player Tyler Loecker and Flight No. 3 singles player Aidan Patrick are coming off solid performances at the ESD.

Loecker and Patrick both fell in their title matches, but Moller praised their efforts leading into state and added "it's going to be a team effort. If we are going to win this thing everybody has to step up and play. We play eight kids to hopefully keep our five and six singles and three doubles a little bit more fresh than everybody else and use that depth to our advantage and hopefully that will pay off as well."