Park boys tennis took on the Waconia Wildcats and won 6-1 April 25. As the season is continuing, the team is steadily improving and keeping up the winning streaks.
According to senior Nate Schwietering, he is pleased with how the game went, and said the team has done a good job in drills during practices.
“(I’m) really proud of how we all did, and (I’m) liking our win streak that we have going,” Schwietering said. ”We’ve recently had a lot of doubles practice, and really practiced our serves and attack drills. That helped out and I’m able to see the improvement in our games.
Boys head tennis coach Greg Holmbeck said aside from the conditions the team played really well and quickly modified, but they still have some things to work on regardless of wins.
“Our players all played well despite very windy conditions, and they adjusted to the windy conditions really well,” Holmbeck said. “We’re going to take what we did today and work on a few specific things, regardless of wins, that I took note of including returns of service and movement in general.”
Senior Hank Heiland said in order to prepare for the match against Waconia, he practiced on serves.
“I worked a lot on my serves, and I worked a lot on the net and it translated,” Heiland said.
Holmbeck said in order to prepare for sections, they are carrying the positive energy from their recent win over Hopkins — a team they haven’t been able to beat in a decade.
“Hopkins has always been a tough competitor for us,” Holmbeck said. “We used the momentum into our Waconia game today, which was a conference match that we beat much more handily.”
Schwietering said staying humble and focused will contribute to an all-around success for the team.
“We got too cocky after the first set,” Schwietering said. “Keeping a level head and nonchalant will help a lot more in the future”.
Heiland said tennis is a mind game, and you have to stay focused to succeed. He said in the next match he will work on refocusing.
“I really focused on getting in the right mindset to make all the magic happen and play my best tennis,” Heiland said. “The wind messed me up in the beginning so I’ll just keep my mind right next time.”
The next match for Park’s boys tennis team is 4:15 p.m. April 30 against New Prague at Park’s tennis courts..
