Prep boys tennis: Intracity dual the latest stop in Memorial, North's busy schedules
May 18—Things have been quite hectic this spring for the Eau Claire Memorial and Eau Claire North boys tennis teams.
But after sitting on the sidelines last spring, nobody's complaining.
The latest stop in the Old Abes' and Huskies' busy schedules came at Monday's intracity meet. Memorial won 7-0 as both teams start to get into the stretch run of their seasons.
Weekend tournaments are keeping both squads on the courts, which is a good place to be after the disappointment of last season's cancelation.
"It's been a good kind of busy, for sure," Memorial doubles player Ryan Hayes said. "We've been trying to travel down to places like Milwaukee and Madison most weekends to get as many matches as we can. It's going well. We've had more matches than practices at this point, but it's gone well."
It's been a similar spring for the Huskies, who have played on a couple of weekends too.
"I compare it to the girls' alternate fall season, where we barely had a normal schedule, mostly playing the same three teams," North coach Meghann Hoag said. "It's nice to have actual conference matches and an actual schedule with tournaments again."
Things haven't been exactly the same as normal — tournaments have been in different locales, and some meets have had to be canceled due to local rules. But teams are still getting their matches in, happy to take them how they can get them.
Memorial would normally host an invite, but doesn't have one scheduled this season as it's been a challenge to find schools from out of the area able to travel to Eau Claire.
"Every city's a little different," Memorial coach Jim Litscher said. "Normally we'd have a couple of home invites, but it's harder to find schools to come here it seems. So we've been able to travel, and do it safely.
"But that's the difference, traveling four times instead of three times and playing once at home."
Both Memorial and North have fairly young teams. The Old Abes have a small contingent of seniors, while North's entire lineup on Monday was composed of juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
That's made every minute on the court a valuable learning experience, especially against tough competition.
"They just need more matches, so that's a good thing," Hoagg said. "You can practice, practice, practice all day long, but when you're in a match you can really see 'OK, this is part of my game I need to work on, this is what I do well.' Then you can go from there."
And weekend tournaments, where the Old Abes have faced several of the state's top teams, add another level to the experience.
"It's just good experience for the younger guys, and honestly for everybody when you're playing the best teams in the state," Hayes said. "You can see what you're up against for the postseason, and what you have to work toward."
Eau Claire Memorial 7, Eau Claire North 0
Singles
No. 1: Ethan Beckermann (M) def. Isaac Lashley 6-0, 6-1. No. 2: Evan Birkholz (M) def. Dominic Yang 6-0, 6-0. No. 3: Bennett Kohlhepp (M) def. Landon Traynor 6-0, 6-0. No. 4: Seth Roosevelt (M) def. Brady Dehnke 6-0, 6-0.
Doubles
No. 1: Tom Petersen/Ryan Hayes (M) def. Blake Bembnister/Gavin Gamroth 6-0, 6-0. No. 2: Sam Prasher/Jackson Seyling (M) def. Samuel Becker/Benett Harlow 6-1, 6-1. No. 3: Grant Johnson/Gavin Sorensen (M) def. Jaxon Ruppelt/Alberto Salazar 6-3, 6-1.
