Homestead boys tennis secures a win over Germantown
May 13, 2015
Homestead’s boys tennis team swept another win under their belt against North Shore Conference team, Germantown.
The Homestead team huddles up before the match against North Shore Conference team, Germantown.
Despite the chilly and windy conditions, the boys came out energized and ready to play. Prior to the match, the boys gathered in their ritual team huddle listening to the motivational words senior team captain, Chase Gabriel, was offering. Clearly, motivating his team is exactly what Gabriel did: starting off strong, every single Homestead player secured the first set.
Homestead’s No. 1 doubles team, junior Aaron Holman and senior Chase Gabriel, were the first to win the opening set with a score of 6-0. “We played aggressively and came out fired up after a tough loss to conference opponent Whitefish Bay,” C. Gabriel said. The Homestead team closed off the match with a 6-0, 6-2 win against the Germantown duo, juniors Justin Lou and Xander Rait. Holman and C. Gabriel began to cheer on teammates who would soon follow similar paths.
Shortly after, No. 2 doubles, sophomore Sydan Parker, subbing in for sophomore Tucker Gabriel who’s out with an injury, and senior Patrick Findling, won the match 6-2, 6-1 against Germantown’s freshman Reed Poland and sophomore Jake Coulthurst, leaving Homestead two matches away from a team victory.
Following these sound wins, No. 3 singles, Alec Schulz, senior, playing Germantown’s Sam Wessel, senior, and No. 4 singles, Robby Baranko, freshman, playing Germantown’s Jeremy Bell, sophomore, came off strong winning their matches 6-1, 6-1.
Seniors Micah Rubin and Andrew Mullins playing at No. 3 doubles took the match winning 6-2, 6-1 against Germantown’s freshman doubles team, Ryan Szopczech and John Loftmen, finalizing a team victory for Homestead.
David Berman, junior, Homestead’s No. 2 singles, ended his first set with a solid backhand slice winning the set 6-0 as well and eventually solidifying a 6-0, 6-3 win against Germantown senior, Evan Hastings, in Homestead’s favor. “The heavy wind made it very difficult to hit through my shots. I made many unforced errors which costed me some games,” Berman said.
Sophomore Eric Mullins, put at No. 1 singles, played a nail-biting, three set match against senior and former doubles state runner-up, Eric Stodola. After over two hours on the court, E. Mullins pulled out a win against Stodola, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7). According to Berman, “The weather appeared to help E. Mullins play better against a strong opponent.”
Eric Mullins, sophomore, playing No. 1 singles, winds up for a backhand during warm-up.
Conditions were not looking in Homestead’s favor, with far from perfect weather. Although Mrs. Jacqueline Egelhoff, tennis coach, called Homestead “a team that hasn’t been full yet this season,” Homestead took the odds and put them in their favor taking a resounding 7-0 team victory over Germantown.
C. Gabriel knows how much this win means for the team, “Germantown has always been a respected team and to beat them this bad was huge for the morale of the team,” C. Gabriel said.