Boys’ tennis were challenged by strong wind and heat during their first match of the season April 13. Despite the matches being back and forth, Park ultimately lost to Chanhassen 6-1, a result against Chanhassen that they haven’t been able to achieve in many years — showing promise for Park this season. 

Sophomore Thomas Halverson said it was a hard but successful match with the team as the wind gave a great disadvantage. 

“It was a very windy day so there were rough conditions,” Halverson said. “Chanhassen is always a great team so I think we played well, but there’s always room to improve.”

Sophomore Crew Lund said the team is in high spirits and supportive, despite it being the first match of the season. 

“So far we’re all really close together,” Lund said. “We definitely support one another, so the spirit has definitely been high and I’m hoping we can take that energy into the next match and throughout the rest of the season.”

Head coach Greg Holmbeck said that the team captains are helping keep morale and motivation up and ready for the season. 

“(Our team spirit) is great. We have two really great captains, Sam Wolden and Frankie Robello. They’ve done a really good job at keeping everything organized,” Holmbeck said. “Everybody seems really motivated and keen to play — I get the feeling that they just want to play more and more. They’re a really fun, smart and funny group of boys.”

Halverson said tennis can be both a physical and mental challenge for him and has specific aspects of his game that he wants to improve in.

“My biggest challenge in tennis is moving my feet — I tend to get stuck and then caught on my heels,” Halverson said. “Keeping my A-game in mind every match is important too.”

Lund said that although the team did a good job at getting ready before the season, they have a long and busy schedule ahead of them. 

“We definitely prepared pretty well for the season, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Lund said. “We have a pretty tough schedule, so we’re going to have to prepare for every match day.”

Holmbeck said he is excited about what the young varsity team has to offer this year. 

“I feel really positive about the season right now,” Holmbeck said. “We lost three of our tougher singles and one of our doubles teams last year, so we lost half of the team. In some ways it’s a rebuilding year, but I feel really positive about the improvements we can make and we’ll see what happens going forward.”

The next boys tennis match is at 4 p.m. April 17 against Hopkins at the St. Louis Park tennis courts.