Linn-Mar Boys Tennis

Lions net 2 wins in Quad Cities

Tim Paulson, Trevor McCann, John Kuster and Ben Myers won both of their singles matches Saturday as the Linn-Mar tennis team opened the season with a pair of easy victories in the Quad Cities.

The Lions whipped Bettendorf, 8-1, and skunked Davenport West, 9-0.

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Lions grab 3rd at state tennis meet

DES MOINES - The Linn-Mar Lions blanked West Des Moines Valley, 6-0, to finish in third place at the Class 2A state team tennis tournament at the Waveland Tennis Courts in Des Moines on Tuesday.

The Lions were defeated by Ames, 5-0, in the semifinals, then returned to the courts an hour later and skunked Valley for third.

Iowa City West trimmed Ames, 5-3, for the Class 2A title.

Brady Anderson, Tyler McCann, Dillon Einck, Trevor McCann, Blake Young and Tim Paulsen won their singles matches for Linn-Mar against West Des Moines Valley.

AMES 5, LINN-MAR 0

Semifinals

Singles

1. Alex Win (A) vs. Brady Anderson (LM), DNF.

2. Alex Huang (A) def. Tyler McCann, 6-4, 6-4.

3. Victor Wang (A) def. Dillon Einck, 6-4, 6-4.

4. Tommy Pitcher (A) def. Trevor McCann, 7-6, 6-0.

5. Andrew Ellis (A) def. Blake Young, 6-0, 7-5.

6. Calvin Song (A) def. Tim Paulsen, 6-3, 6-3.

LINN-MAR 6, WDM VALLEY 0

Consolation for 3rd

Singles

1. Brady Anderson (LM) def. Ryan Peterson, 6-2, 6-1.

2. Tyler McCann (LM) def. Anders Jensen, 6-2, 6-3.

3. Dillon Einck (LM) def. Tom Maigaard, 6-3, 6-3.

4. Trevor McCann (LM) def. Mitch McCoy, 6-0, 6-3.

5. Blake Young (LM) def. Shaan Madhan, 4-6, 6-2, 1-0.

6. Tim Paulsen (LM) def. Stephen McCabe, 6-2, 6-3.

McCann, Anderson take 5th in doubles

During the awards ceremony following the Iowa High School Class 2A state tennis championships Saturday afternoon, tournament director Randy Krecji of Cedar Rapids said an old coach once told him that the next best thing to winning a tourney is to finish fifth.

In most meets, claiming the consolation bracket prize takes four victories. And, as is the case with the champion, it also means closing out with a victory.

The Linn-Mar doubles team of Tyler McCann and Brady Anderson picked up fifth-place hardware Saturday after defeating Clinton's Mitch Schumacher and Ryan Schroeder, 6-3, 6-4, at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center.

Seeded first in doubles coming into the tournament, McCann and Anderson won their first match but fell to the eventual title tandem from Ames on Friday. The Lion duo, who were 16-0 before the loss, roared back to win three straight matches to finish their season on a high note.

“It feels good,” McCann said. “I played poorly in the one that we lost, but both of us played a lot better today.

“It was kind of windy, so we had to come to the net a lot. And we’re pretty good at playing the nets.”

Anderson said that even though he and his partner came in fifth, he feels they proved themselves to be among the top two or three teams in the state. They won their district meet. And, in a hard-fought match, they beat Washington’s top duo of Mitch Anderson (Brady’s older brother) and Clayton Hoyt Friday night. The Warriors were seeded third.

“They’re definitely in the top eight and probably the top five,” Brady said.

The Linn-Mar pair had the misfortune, however, of facing Alex Qin and Tommy Pitcher of Ames in the second round. Unseeded because they lost in the districts to fellow Little Cyclones Calvin Song and Victor Wang, Qin and Pitcher played No. 1 doubles for Ames this year even though their senior teammates finished second in the 2011 state tournament.

Last year’s runnerup was the second seed this year behind McCann and Anderson. The younger Ames tandem breezed through this year’s meeting, however, winning the all-Ames championship final, 7-6, 6-1, Saturday afternoon.

Krejci said it was the first time two teams from the same school vied for the title since Sioux City North did it in 1994.

“Playing them that early in the tournament was a tough break for us,” Anderson said. “But that’s the luck of the draw.”

They’ll have a chance for revenge, though, since Linn-Mar is one four schools that will compete in the state team championships Tuesday in Des Moines along with Ames, Iowa City West and West Des Moines Valley.

“Both of us have beaten both of those guys in singles before,” McCann said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

CLASS 2A BOYS STATE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
At Veterans Memorial Tennis Center

Saturday

Singles

Semifinals
Naveen Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Alex Huang (Ames), 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
Riley Galbraith (CR Kennedy) def. Will Hemminger (DM Roosevelt), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2

Consolation semifinals
Ryan Peterson (WDM Valley0 def. Anders Jensen (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-4
Blake Oetting (IC West) def. Roy Ju (Cedar Falls), 6-2, 6-0

Seventh Place
Ju (Cedar Falls) def. Jensen (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-4

Fifth Place
Oetting (IC West) def. Peterson (WDM Valley), 6-2, 6-0

Third Place
Hemminger (DM Roosevelt) def. Huang (Ames), 6-1, 6-4

Championship
Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Galbraith (CR Kennedy), 6-4, 6-1


Doubles

Semifinals
Qin/Pitcher (Ames) def. Appel/Dellos (IC West), 2-6, 6-2, 6-1
Song/Wang (Ames) def. Boldt/Wenzel (IC West), 6-2, 6-4

Consolation semifinals
Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley), 6-0, 6-1
Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton) def. Petersen/Benna (Ankeny), 6-3, 6-2

Seventh Place
Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley) def. Petersen/Benna (Ankeny), 7-6(6), 7-6(8)

Fifth Place
Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton), 6-3, 6-4

Third Place
Appel/Dellos (IC West) def.. Boldt/Wenzel (IC West), 6-1, 3-6, 1(4)

Championship
Qin/Pitcher (Ames) def. Song/Wang (Ames), 7-6(5), 6-1

Tyler McCann, Anderson upset at state

Day one of the boys high school state tennis tournament was not a good one for the Linn-Mar doubles team of Tyler McCann and Brady Anderson.

It was good, though, for Kennedy's Riley Galbraith, who remains the only Metro player still in the chase for a title.

The top-seeded doubles team of Tyler McCann and Anderson survived a scare in their first match Friday, but lost the second for their first defeat of the season.

“I played horrible,” McCann said after the 6-4, 6-3 loss to Tommy Pitcher and Alex Qin of Ames. “That’s all I can say.

“Brady played really well, and I just didn’t show up. I don’t know why. No excuses. But it’s too bad it had to be today that I didn’t play well.”

The senior/sophomore duo entered the tournament with a 15-0 record and had won the district title whipping by Tyler’s younger brother Trevor and Linn-Mar teammate John Kuster.

The older McCann finished third in doubles last year with Gavin Young and sixth in 2010 with Brady’s older brother Mitch, who is in the state tournament this year as a Washington senior.

Though unseeded in tournament, Qin and Pitcher have been Ames’ No. 1 doubles team this season. The pair was runnerup in its district to teammates Calvin Song and Victor Wang, who were second in the state doubles last spring.

“They’re really good players and definitely the better team today,” Brady Anderson said.  “As a team, Tyler and I have played a lot better. We’d win a game or two, but they’d come right back. We never did get any momentum.”

It was a contrast to their opening match when they came on like a freight train against Washington’s Mitch Blades and Reid Rossberger after being on the brink of a lopsided loss. The Warriors’ unseeded No. 2 doubles team started out like a house afire, taking the first set 6-3 leading the second 4-1.

The mercurial Blades was blazing, even returning a deep lob with a shot between his legs that still zinged over the net.  He tried to slam the return, missed and then double-faulted to lose the game.

It was all downhill from there.

McCann and Anderson stormed back to take the set 7-5 and then coasted 6-1 for the win.

“We were lucky to advance,” McCann said. “We came out really soft. And they played extremely well at the start.”

Anderson said he and his partner had trouble getting a racket on Blades’ laser-like serves.

“For us to get back in it, we needed them to give us a couple of points,” he said. “When they started missing some shots, we picked up the momentum.”

The Washington pair admitted to suffering a meltdown.

“We had everything going, and then we choked big time,” Blades said. “My serve just stopped, and we started going for too much.

“We just shut down, and they turned it on. But the fact is, we choked.”

Teammate Rossberger said the couldn’t handle the success they were having over the tournament’s top seed.

“The first set, we were fantastic,” he said. “We were on fire. But we lost a couple of points and sort of tanked after that.

“We got too tentative instead of being aggressive. They had the will to win. We were playing not to lose. So we lost.”

The Washington duo lost their next match, as well, in the consolation bracket.

McCann and Anderson, however, bounced back to defeat the Warriors' Clayton Hoyt and Mitch Anderson in a tiebreaker to advance to Saturday morning’s consolation bracket semifinals.

Hoyt and Mitch Anderson, seeded No. 3, lost their opening match but rebounded in their second before being eliminated by Linn-Mar’s McCann and Brady Anderson.

Linn-Mar’s No. 2 doubles team of Trevor McCann and John Kuster dropped their opening match opening match, won their second, then lost again.

Friday’s matches started at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in the morning but were halted by rain.

The singles competition moved indoors to Coe College.  Doubles play was shifted inside at Westfield Tennis Center, resumed later back at Vets but was concluded at Westfield after a second bout of rain.

The tournament concludes Saturday at Vets. Consolation semifinals are scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., championship consolations at 10 a.m.

CLASS 2A BOYS STATE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
At Veterans Memorial Tennis Center

Friday

Singles

First Round
Naveen Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Nick Johnson (Hempstead), 6-0, 7-6(2)
Ryan Peterson (WDM Valley) def. Chris Habermann (SC North), 6-1, 6-4
CJ Ray (Ottumwa) def. Roy Ju (Cedar Falls), 6-2, 6-1
Alex Huang (Ames0 def. AJ Smith (Pleasant Valley), 6-0, 6-1
Blake Oetting (IC West) def. Andrew Ellis (Ames), 6-3, 6-3
Will Hemminger (DM Roosevelt) def. Alex Crowl (CB Abe Lincoln), 6-2, 7-5
Bobbie Slavens (Bettendorf) def. Sead Sarkic (Waterloo West), 6-1, 6-1
Riley Galbraith (CR Kennedy) def. Anders Jensen (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-2

Second Round
Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Peterson (WDM Valley), 6-3, 6-2
Huang (Ames) def. Ray (Ottumwa), 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Hemminger (DM Roosevelt) def. Oetting (IC West), 6-1, 6-2
Galbraith (CR Kennedy) def. Slavens (Bettendorf), 6-2, 6-0

Consolation

First Round
Ellis (Ames) def. Crowl (CB Abe Lincoln), 6-4, 6-3
Jensen (WDM Valley) def. Sarkic (Waterloo West), WD (pc)
Johnson (Hempstead) def. Habermann (SC North), 6-0, 6-0
Ju (Cedar Falls) def. Smith (Pleasant Valley), 6-3, 6-2

Second Round
Peterson (WDM Valley) def. Ellis (Ames), Injury default
Jensen (WDM Valley) def. Ray (Ottumwa), 6-2, 6-4
Oetting (IC West) def. Johnson (Hempstead), 6-2, 6-1
Ju (Cedar Falls) def. Slavens (Bettendorf), 6-2, 6-1


Doubles

First Round
B.Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. M.Blades/R.Rossberger (CR Washington), 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
A.Qin/T.Pitcher (Ames) def. M.Schumacher/R.Schroeder (Clinton), 6-3, 6-1
T.Maigaard/M.McCoy (WDM Valley) def. B.Murman/A.Stover (Fort Dodge), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
K.Appel/A.Dellos (IC West) def. C.Debner/T.VanDePol (Ankeny), 6-1, 6-2
A.Boldt/K.Wenzel (IC West) def. M.Anderson/C.Hoyt (CR Washington), 6-3, 7-5
P.Kruzan/D.Hays (Waukee) def. D.Graves/J.T.Tripp (SC West), 6-0, 6-0
M.Petersen/L.Benna (Ankeny) def. Tr.McCann/J.Kuster (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-1
C.Song/V.Wang (Ames) def. J.Stewart/S.Kardell (Pleasant Valley), 6-2, 6-4

Quarterfinals
Qin/Pitcher (Ames) def. Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-3
Appel/Dellos (IC West) def. Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-2
Boldt/Wenzel (IC West) def. Kruzan/Hays (Waukee), 6-1, 6-1
Song/Wang (Ames) def. Petersen/Benna (Ankeny), 6-2, 6-4

Consolation Bracket

First Round
Anderson/Hoyt (CR Washington) def. Graves/Tripp (SC West), 6-1, 6-1
Tr.McCann/Kuster (Linn-Mar) def. Stewart/Kardell (Pleasant Valley), 6-1, 3-6, 1(5)
Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton) def. Blades/Rossberger (CR Washington), 6-0, 6-4
Murman/Stover (Fort Dodge) def. Debner/VanDePol (Ankeny), 6-3, 1-6, 1(7)

Second Round
Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. Anderson/Hoyt (CR Washington), 6-4, 3-6, 1(6)
Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley) def. Tr.McCann/Kuster (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-4
Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton) def. Kruzan/Hays (Waukee), 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 1(5)
Petersen/Benna (Ankeny) def. Murman/Stover (Fort Dodge), 6-1, 6-1