Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano’s Joe Willkomm reaches for a ball during a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 loss to Fox Valley Lutheran at No. 2 doubles Wednesday. Shawano won the match, 4-3.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano’s Carter Peplinski gets around a ball to hit with his forehand in a three-set loss to Fox Valley Lutheran at No. 2 doubles Wednesday. Shawano won the match, 4-3.
Trailing 5-4 in the second set, Shawano’s top singles player, Shawn Klemens, won the next three games Wednesday to seal the Hawks’ 4-3 home win over Fox Valley Lutheran.
Klemens was able to use his left-handed delivery to hold serve twice in the final three games in a 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Jared Petham.
“He hadn’t been hitting my serves, and I had been hitting them pretty well,” Klemens said. “I just knew I had to win his service game.”
The Bay Conference match started April 21 but was postponed, due to lightning, until Wednesday.
Klemens was winning his tiebreaker in the first set, 5-4, when play resumed Wednesday. He was thrown into a difficult situation, immediately needing to serve twice, but won both points to take a one-set lead.
“I’ve never seen him hit the ball with as much authority in a match before,” Shawano head coach Brian Beyer said. “I think this is a match that’s going to propel him as he goes along. I think he’s going to have a good year the rest of the year.”
The Hawks’ No. 3 singles player, Teddy Myers, needed a tiebreaker in the second set to pull out his victory to push Shawano ahead of Fox Valley Lutheran, 3-2, at the time.
Shawano’s No. 1 and No. 3 doubles teams — Manny Morell and Kyle Easter, and Levi Johnson and Donald Chen, respectively — won in straight sets.
The Hawks’ No. 2 doubles team was unable to regain the momentum it had built last week. Carter Peplinski and Joe Willkomm dropped the opening set but rebounded for a 6-3 victory in the second set before falling again in the third.
“So much of the tennis game is a mental game. Some of the momentum they were riding coming into that match was gone,” Beyer said. “So it was a complete reset on the match, so all of that is gone. It’s about how you’re playing today.”
Getting a close victory midway through the season shows the growth in confidence of a relatively young, inexperienced team, Beyer said.
“One thing I’m starting to like that we’re doing is we’re starting to be aggressive,” Beyer said. “We are playing to win the match instead of playing to just stay in it. Overall, if we keep being confident and keep going for our shots, we’re just going to keep getting better.”
Shawano 4, Fox Valley Lutheran 3
Singles: Shawn Klemens, S, def. Jared Petham, FVL, 7-6 (4), 7-5; Noah Stemberg, FVL, def. Kale McHugh, S, 6-2, 6-4; Teddy Myers, S, def. Jonah Hungerford, FVL, 6-2, 7-6 (5); Vincent Jaschinski, FVL, def. Chris Black, S, 6-4, 7-5.
Doubles: Manny Morell/Kyle Easter, S, def. Ares Oldenburg/Jacob Madolinski, FVL, 6-2, 7-5; John Davidsaver/Matthew Bovee, FVL, def. Carter Peplinski/Joe Willkomm, S, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Levi Johnson/Donald Chen, S, def. Dietrich Ragner/Josh Aden, FVL, 6-2, 6-3.