By Chris Bennett
The Elkhorn Area High School boys tennis team celebrated a successful season simply on June 3 – pizza and soda at the Monte Carlo Room at Sperino’s in Elkhorn.
The Elks did not duplicate the success they enjoyed last season, when they won the Southern Lakes Conference championship, but continued to improve under the leadership of coaches Mark Mergener, Donna Neshek and Nancy White.
The Elks handed out team awards that evening.
Matt Nelson earned Most Valuable Player honors. Carter Olson earned Most Improved Player honors and Grant Saari earned the Coach Award.
Griffin Sweeney and Aaron Wales earned the Robert Christiansen Leadership Award.
Alex Jensen, Saari, Sweeney and Wales were named Captains, and Aaron Gottschalk earned Honorary Captain honors.
The Robert Christiansen Leadership Award is named for Bob Christiansen, a long-time coach and player with strong ties to Elkhorn tennis.
Nelson at No. 4 singles and Sweeney and Wales at No. 1 doubles advanced the farthest this season of the Elks.
Nelson and Sweeney and Wales are the only Elks that advanced from the Lake Geneva sub-sectional meet to the sectional meet.
The sub-sectional took place May 27 at Badger, a meet which the Elks won.
“The team, as a whole, helped us reach a great goal of Sub Sectional champs,” Neshek said. “We had six of seven players make it to the sectional tournament.”
Nelson finished third at the sectional. Nelson rallied and won the third-place match 6-4, 6-1 against Janesville Craig’s Christian Voskuil.
Nelson advanced to the sectional meet after defeating Beloit Memorial’s Aiden Murphy 6-1, 6-2 and Fort Atkinson’s Tanner Bakken 6-1, 6-4 at the sub-sectional meet.
Sweeney and Wales beat Fort Atkinson’s Owen Kirkeby and Jack Chisholm 6-2 in the first set and lost the second set 6-4. Sweeney and Wales won the match with a 6-3 victory in the third set.
The Elks finished fourth overall this season in the SLC and went 6-1 in SLC dual meets. The Elks lost 4-2 to Lake Geneva April 10 at home.
The Elks also finished second in three tournaments – April 26 at Delavan-Darien, May 2 at Fort Atkinson and May 3 at Elkhorn.
“Though we will miss our senior leadership, we have a strong returning varsity group as well as a full junior varsity squad to fill the gaps,” Neshek said.
