With their heads held up high, the boys’ tennis team faced off against Orono during one of their final matches before sectionals May 11. Park gave a good effort but ultimately lost to Orono 1-6.

According to sophomore Crew Lund, although the team lost, they played well and there is still much to be proud of. 

“We had a lot of competitive matches, a lot of competitive points throughout the entire thing,” Lund said. “I’m not upset by the way we played, overall there were a lot of good things to see in this match.”

Head coach Greg Holmbeck said despite the loss, the team did much better than when they played Orono last year.

“We played really well against them, we lost, but last year we didn’t even win a match and we didn’t even close in some sets and this year that was different,” Holmbeck said. “We had some good matches and we won a match.”

Senior captain Sam Wolden said everyone gave their best effort, and that the team feels prepared for sections.

“Matches went better than expected. The scores might not reflect that but everyone played great today,” Wolden said. “We are ready for sections and we will hopefully do really well.”

Holmbeck said the team is doing a good job at finding a rhythm in their games and wins.

“We are really finding our games now that we’re in the last week of the season and we are playing better and better,” Holmbeck said. “Despite the loss today, we had three big wins this week against Minneapolis Southwest, Burnsville and against New Prague.”

Lund said the team is becoming more confident in their skills.

“We’ve gotten a lot more consistent, and people have started to build their confidence in their matches,” Lund said.

Wolden said it can be hard to keep your head up, but the team just need to try its best. 

“It’s one of those things where you go in and you know that there’s nothing with you so you’re really nervous, and that’s when you can sometimes play your best,” Wolden said.

Lund said the best thing you can do to get through a tough match is staying positive.

“(It helps to) keep my hopes up and stay positive, because sometimes you can get into really tough matches,” Lund said. “Then it can be really hard to just stay positive and have a mindset that you can win.”

Holmbeck said there are three big things to believe in if you want to win.

“Consistency, stamina and concentration,” Holmbeck said. “The biggest thing is believing that they can get the big points and win when it’s close.”

The next tennis match is against Minneapolis South at 4:00 p.m. May 15 at Park.