The Park boys tennis team played a perfect match against Chaska on the sunny afternoon of May 13. The Park boys ended their regular season off in crushing fashion, sending them into their section match with a lot of confidence.
Head coach Gregory Holmbeck said he wants Park to keep their energy levels when heading into sections.
“I want us to keep up this energy and the level of play, just really staying mentally tough when it counts,” Holmbeck said.
Junior Crew Lund said he played well in the second half of his match, despite some setbacks.
“It was shortened today because we had already started this match, but it got postponed due to weather,” Lund said. “It’s a little hard to say much because it was a shorter match, but we played well, especially in the second set.”
According to freshman Chase Peterson, he’s happy with how he finished his sets and the dominant finish gives him a mental advantage heading into his next match.
“I was happy with the last points in the match, it was a big ego booster,” Peterson said.
Holmbeck said he wants the team to finish the season with a strong mentality for future tournaments.
“I’m looking forward to a positive section experience both in the team tournament and the individual tournament,” Holmbeck said. “(We want to) keep playing better, and if we finish the season playing our best, that’s great.”
Lund said heading into his next match, he is looking to have better opening sets and have the starts of his matches lay down the mental groundwork.
“Starting out better and getting more confidence is my personal goal. Confidence can be hard to build up,” Lund said. “I started out a little slow and I definitely started off a lot better next time.”
Peterson said he looks to get better at his groundstrokes more than anything while finishing out the season.
“Heading into the Conference, I look forward to improving my groundstrokes and playing better,” Peterson said.
Boys tennis’ next game is 8:00 a.m. May 22 at Blake High School.
