Jaime Wieme

Men drop two to WSU

The SDSU men’s tennis team has begun this season by being thrown into the fire.

After dropping their first match of the year to St. Joseph’s team last week, life did not get any easier as they headed to Winona State University this past weekend.

The Jacks lost their first match to WSU 8-1. The lone win for the men came from number one singles player Ben Barnes, who beat Daniel Claire in straight sets.

The Jacks’ number three player freshmen Steve Grantz lost a close three set match to Winona State’s Kyle Buchmeier. SDSU also played tough in all three of the doubles matches in close losses.

The University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse came calling for the Jacks in the next match, and prevailed – beating the Rabbits 7-2. The wins for SDSU came at number one single, Barnes, and number one doubles, Barnes and Jeff Everson).

Barnes, now boasting a 3-0 singles record, made easy work of UWL’s Drew Pollek, beating him 6-0, 6-2.

Together again for the first time this season after success last year, Barnes and Everson scored a quality win for the Jacks at besting Drew Pollek and John Palmer by a score of 8-6.

Head Coach Don Hansen is once again going through the tough task that all tennis coaches must go through: finding a line-up that can win.

Some jugglingwill happen on the doubles side, and kinks on the singles side are currently being worked out.

As soon as Hanson finds the right combination is found he predicts that the Jacks will be a force to be reckoned with.

Next up for the Jacks will be the University of Sioux Falls this Friday at Woodlake Athletic Club in Sioux Falls.

Women lose first two

The SDSU women’s tennis team shared the same fate as the men’s squad did at WSU this weekend, losing twice.

Unlike the men’s team, however, these matches were the first of the season for the Lady Jacks. The women’s opponents were also WSU and UW-LaCrosse.

These teams proved to be tough for the Jacks, as they dropped both matches 9-0.

The women’s first match, against WSU, did show some signs of optimism. The ladies pushed WSU into three-set matches at three of the six singles slots.

Number two singles player, Kari Markee, forced Megan Newbauer into the three set decision. Also, the Jacks’ fourth (Laura Klinkhammer) and fifth (Jen Creed) singles players also battled their opponents to third-set thrillers.

In their second match of the weekend, the women’s team came up against a very skilled UW-LaCrosse squad.

The UWL squad was simply too much to handle for the youthful Jacks.

The Jacks lost all their singles matches in straight sets and also struggled on the doubles side of the net.

As was suspected, the women’s biggest challenge this year will be their inexperience.

Even though the squad struggled this weekend, the season is young and more practice time is needed before the Jacks can show their true colors.

Head Coach Don Hansen will continue to make line-up moves where he finds necessary to give the Jacks their best chance at winning matches.

The women will now focus their sights on the rivaled University of South Dakota.

That match will take place this Friday in Sioux City, Iowa.