Tennis: Powerful Wayzata upends Elks 6-1

• Tweet
• 
• 
• 

Elk River-Zimmerman’s tennis team faced  possibly the state’s top team and asbsorbed its first loss 6-1 to Wayzata there on Thursday.

 

“We took it on the chin,” said coach Randy Ronning. “They are a really good team, possibly the best in the sState.  They are still undefeated and earlier in the week beat No. 1 ranked Eden Prairie, 6-1.

 

“Our match was closer than 1-6 sounds, however, as we lost two matches where we had leads in the third sets, and another where the match was close for half the way.”

 

Elk 8th-grader Josh Gearou looked “fabulous,” said the coach, winning the last 11 games in rolling over Dustin Britton at No. 1  singles, 6-2,6-0.

 

At No. 2 singles just the opposite happened to Sam Gearou, where the points and games were like marathons, but Sam could not get on the winning end against Scott Vezzosi, losing 2-6,0-6.

 

At No. 3 singles Ryan Ness got down early but battled back beautifully to go up 4-2 in the third set, before dropping four close games and the match to Duncan Sallstrom, 1-6,7-5,4-6.

 

No. 1 doubles was a great match, said the coach, with Mitchel Brandell and Zak Steichen not quite being able to close out third-set leads of 5-4 and 6-5 over Mike Anderson and Guiliano Kornberg, finally losing in a thrilling tie breaker, 5-7.

 

“We needed this point and Ryan’s to get to within 3-4, but when it looked like we might win both we couldn’t finish the deal and ended up losing both.”

 

The Elks (6-1) face Andover on Tuesday.

 

Wayzata 6, Elks 1

 

Singles

(1) Josh Gearou, ERZ, def Dustin Brown 6-2, 6-0

(2) Scott Vezzosi, Wyz, def Sam Gearou 6-2, 6-0

(3) Duncan Sallstrom, Wyz, def Ryan Ness 6-1, 5-7, 6-4

(4) Nick Beaty, Wyz, def Josh Chuba 6-0, 6-1

 

Doubles

(1) Mike Anderson-Guillian Kornberg, Wyz, def Mitchel Brandel-Zak Steichen 7-5, 7-5

(2) Matt Halverson-Ketan Kulkami, Wyz, def Dylan Berger-Jesse Bragg 6-4, 6-0

(3) Jack Graven-Evan Chen, Wyz, def Logann Bruns-Levi House 6-0, 6-1