Coach happy with progress Whippets tennis team has made
By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School boys tennis team survived three matches last week.
And on Monday, the Whippets traveled to East Troy, where the Trojans took advantage of its home court, winning 6-1.
Whitewater’s lone victory came in No. 2 singles as Austin Kaja won his match 6-0, 6-1.
“Austin was able to handle his opponent’s big serve and dictate a lot of the points with crisp ground strokes,” WHS head coach Jordan Dittmer said. “The rest of our singles lineup showed good resilience by battling back and winning all the second sets after dropping the opening set in each case. Unfortunately, we were unable to take advantage of any of the second-set victories as we dropped all three match tiebreakers. East Troy did a good job of raising their game during key points in the tiebreaks.”
Dittmer said the doubles teams didn’t go very well across the board and that some weaknesses were exposed. But now the team knows what it needs to work on in practices going forward.
On April 18, Whitewater hosted Jefferson and didn’t drop a single match, winning 7-0.
Each of the four Whippets singles players won in two sets, as did the No. 1 doubles duo of Colin Chenoweth and Broderick Frye.
In No. 2 doubles, Weston Lema and Shane Kinson won 1-6, 6-2, 1-0 (8), while the No. 3 duo team of Ramon Wence and Arno Crowley won their match 6-0, 4-6, 1-0 (2).
“This was an awesome team win for us against a conference opponent,” Dittmer said. “Last year we were swept by teams in our conference, so it was great to take a conference win early. This was also the first time in the last three years that we have swept a team.”
Dittmer said each of the singles players played outstanding, while he was most impressed with one doubles team in particular.
“I am most impressed with No. 2 doubles,” he said. “They pretty much laid an egg in the first set, losing 6-1. However, they were able to shake off their frustrations and regroup in between sets. It takes a lot of mental toughness to come back and win the match after losing the first set so handily.”
Whitewater also faced a road match against Watertown Luther Prep on April 16.
The Whippets lost 4-3, getting each of their wins in singles. In doubles, Luther Prep swept the Whippets 3-0.
“It was disappointing not to be able to come away with a win, but there were still a lot of positives to take away from the meet,” Dittmer said. “Even though we lost our three doubles matches, I could see that doubles pairings were beginning to play well together. Luther Prep had a strong doubles lineup, but we still managed to put some pressure on them as each of our doubles teams got to four games in one of the sets. Our doubles players did a good job of closing to the net.”
Dittmer also said that overall he’s happy with his team’s progress.
See more Whitewater sports in the April 25 Register.
