PIRATE BOYS TENNIS TEAM COMES UP SHORT IN FIRST MATCH AT BEMIDJI

The Crookston Pirate Boys Tennis team played a lot of competitive matches, but couldn’t find a way to win in a 7-0 loss to the Bemidji Lumberjacks in a dual played at the Gillette Fitness Center on the Bemidji State campus.
The match started with the third and fourth singles and second and third doubles teams on the four courts.  Jack Garmen played a solid match at third singles and lost 6-4, 6-3.  “Jack played a great match today,” said Coach Cody Brekken. “He had to do a little more running which he wasn’t thrilled with, but he really played a good match.”  Logan Schultz also played a good match, but his opponent was too much in a 6-3, 6-1 loss.  “Logan likes the long points and he waits for the right time to get the winner,” said Coach Brekken. “He had a solid effort and it was a good start for him.”
The second doubles team struggled to get any points and lost 6-1, 6-0, but the third doubles team of Mason LaPlante and Logan Johnson won the first set of their match 6-4.  Bemidji bounced back to win the second set 6-2, forcing a tie-breaker and Bemidji edged Crookston 13-11 to win the match.  “Those two really came out strong and had a great first set,” said Coach Brekken.  “We need to figure out how to figure out how to keep the momentum going, but they almost won the tie-breaker so it was a good match for the guys.”
At second doubles, Dilon Owens and Robert Janorschke lost 6-1, 6-0.  “You might look at the score and think it wasn’t close, but they had some long points,” said Coach Brekken. “It was a much closer match than it looked, but they weren’t able to find a way to win the close ones.”  At this point in the match, Bemidji already won with four wins under their belt.  
The first singles (Nick Garmen), second singles (Blake Fee) and first doubles (Logan Wardner and Tanner Janorschke) played some solid competitive matches.  Blake Fee, at second singles, lost a quick first set 6-1 and trailed 5-0 before he rattled off four straight wins to get within a 5-4 deficit but he ended up losing the second set 6-4.  “Blake started a little slow, but he really picked up his play in the second set,” said Coach Brekken. “He started to get more consistency on his serving and when he does that he is a very dangerous player.”
The first singles match with Nick Garmen and Bemidji’s Spencer Konecne was a great back-and-forth match.  Nick took an early lead, but Konecne was able to battle back and win the first set 6-3, before winning the second set 6-1.  “Nick was up 3-2 and was playing very good tennis,” said Coach Brekken. “Spencer is one of the top players in the area and he showed it as he picked up his play to get the win.”
The first doubles match was a battle with Logan Wardner and Tanner Janorschke winning the first set 7-6 with a 7-3 tie-breaker.  Bemidji bounced back to win the second set 6-2 and they won the third set tie-breaker 10-3.  “It was good to see the way the two hustled and got after it today,” said Coach Brekken. “They came out strong and won the first set, but they might have run out of gas the rest of the way, but they really played well and with a lot of energy.”
Even though the Pirates lost 7-0, coach Brekken was happy with what he saw in the first match of the year against a very good Bemidji team.
Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year and will take on two section opponents on Monday with duals against Fergus Falls and East Grand Forks at East Grand Forks.  “It was nice to get on some actual courts today and the guys had some good play all-around and they competed from the beginning to the end,” said Coach Brekken. “It was good to see the matches went longer and were competitive against a good team like Bemidji.  It was a good start to the season and we seem to be further ahead of where we were last year.”
Bemidji improves to 2-0 on the year after they beat Grand Rapids earlier in the day.