MADISON - Levi Janssens' forehand might not exactly explode off his racquet in the second round of the WIAA state tennis tournament today.
While Janssens' fellow senior, partner and close friend Matt Turek, had many moments of redemption, even the hulking net-minder Turek was humbled by his occasional lulls in the first round of the Cheesemakers' doubles team's state debut Thursday night.
Janssens proudly put Turek on his shoulders, and the duo pulled out a 6-7 (3), 7-5, 10-4, victory over Columbus Catholic's baseline-happy Phil Dieringer and Al Kolpanen.
"Thank God for Levi to carry us through the whole thing," Turek said. "Once in a while I'd come up with one or two shots and feel like I was coming through. Then I'd double-fault or do something stupid at the net."
"He remains positive the whole time and really helps me as much as I help him," Janssens countered.
Monroe's No. 1 duo rebounded from a disheartening loss in the first set before holding off the Dons' duo in the second and wrapping up the tiebreaker just before 11 p.m.
The Cheesemakers had little in the way of a scouting report, only knowing the Dons team dropped anchor on the baseline. So Monroe unabashedly rushed the net every chance it got, most often with both Cheesemakers addressing the net at once.
"They were very bad at volleys, so we just kept taking the net and bringing them up, too," Janssens said.
"We wanted to be the aggressor," Turek said. "It's not much fun playing on your heels."
The match began at 9:25 p.m. and looked the part, as points were quick and service left a lot to be desired on both sides.
"It might have just been a 9 o'clock match; everybody had cleared out of here," Coach Jim Bartholf said. "Serving is a weapon when you get into doubles and it was much of a weapon for either side today."
Turek and Janssens took a fiery huddle to heart when Bartholf laid into his duo down 5-2 in the first set.
"I just had to get after them," Bartholf said.
"We kind of actually got ragged on," Turek said. "He just woke us up."
While Monroe's rally came up short in a 7-3 tiebreaker, Bartholf's pep talk carried over to the second set. Turek finished off a breaking of Kolpanen's serve with an emphatic smash on an advantage in to take the third game and a 2-1 lead. Then Turek held serve to make things 3-1. The teams then both held serve and swapped games twice, giving Monroe a 5-3 lead.
But, after Dieringer held service, Janssens was broken, forcing Monroe to either step up in a 5-5 tie or watch its last season slip away.
The Cheesemaker duo dug in, breaking Kolpanen before Turek grinded out the next service game to take the set 7-5.
Turek, who spent as much time shaking his head at his unforced errors in the second set as he did over Janssens' incredible play, made amends with a flurry of net points in the third-set tiebreak. On the first day of the tournament, the third set is decided by a race to 10 points.
Janssens first put a ball away at the net to take a lead at 6-3. Then Turek crushed a net point to back up Janssens' service. After a Dieringer unforced error, Turek came up with another smash before Janssens followed suit emphatically two points later to close the match, 10-4.
Dieringer had no illusions about where he and his fellow senior lost pace. Their first-serve percentage was far below 50 percent.
"They took advantage of our second serves; that's where we lost the match," Dieringer said.
Turek and Janssens enjoyed a sort of "home-court advantage," having played at Nielsen during the Badger Conference Tourney. Even with a scant crowd remaining, Janssens made himself at home.
"I kind of liked it and I just really felt right at home here," he said.
"It was definitely an advantage having played here," Turek said. "Everything's a little different. The lighting's strange."
That advantage will be gone at 1:30 p.m. today when the team tries to pull an incredible upset of Dirk VanRyboek and Phil Paradise of Madison Edgewood, the ladder's fourth seed with a 24-0 mark.
"We're just hoping we can give them a run at every point," Turek said. "Every time we've played them we've learned something about them."
The duos are friends off the court and Turek figures that even if Monroe's season ends today, hopefully they'll give the Crusaders the best battle-testing possible.
"If we can't pull the Cinderella story, we want to make sure they're sharp."
While Janssens' fellow senior, partner and close friend Matt Turek, had many moments of redemption, even the hulking net-minder Turek was humbled by his occasional lulls in the first round of the Cheesemakers' doubles team's state debut Thursday night.
Janssens proudly put Turek on his shoulders, and the duo pulled out a 6-7 (3), 7-5, 10-4, victory over Columbus Catholic's baseline-happy Phil Dieringer and Al Kolpanen.
"Thank God for Levi to carry us through the whole thing," Turek said. "Once in a while I'd come up with one or two shots and feel like I was coming through. Then I'd double-fault or do something stupid at the net."
"He remains positive the whole time and really helps me as much as I help him," Janssens countered.
Monroe's No. 1 duo rebounded from a disheartening loss in the first set before holding off the Dons' duo in the second and wrapping up the tiebreaker just before 11 p.m.
The Cheesemakers had little in the way of a scouting report, only knowing the Dons team dropped anchor on the baseline. So Monroe unabashedly rushed the net every chance it got, most often with both Cheesemakers addressing the net at once.
"They were very bad at volleys, so we just kept taking the net and bringing them up, too," Janssens said.
"We wanted to be the aggressor," Turek said. "It's not much fun playing on your heels."
The match began at 9:25 p.m. and looked the part, as points were quick and service left a lot to be desired on both sides.
"It might have just been a 9 o'clock match; everybody had cleared out of here," Coach Jim Bartholf said. "Serving is a weapon when you get into doubles and it was much of a weapon for either side today."
Turek and Janssens took a fiery huddle to heart when Bartholf laid into his duo down 5-2 in the first set.
"I just had to get after them," Bartholf said.
"We kind of actually got ragged on," Turek said. "He just woke us up."
While Monroe's rally came up short in a 7-3 tiebreaker, Bartholf's pep talk carried over to the second set. Turek finished off a breaking of Kolpanen's serve with an emphatic smash on an advantage in to take the third game and a 2-1 lead. Then Turek held serve to make things 3-1. The teams then both held serve and swapped games twice, giving Monroe a 5-3 lead.
But, after Dieringer held service, Janssens was broken, forcing Monroe to either step up in a 5-5 tie or watch its last season slip away.
The Cheesemaker duo dug in, breaking Kolpanen before Turek grinded out the next service game to take the set 7-5.
Turek, who spent as much time shaking his head at his unforced errors in the second set as he did over Janssens' incredible play, made amends with a flurry of net points in the third-set tiebreak. On the first day of the tournament, the third set is decided by a race to 10 points.
Janssens first put a ball away at the net to take a lead at 6-3. Then Turek crushed a net point to back up Janssens' service. After a Dieringer unforced error, Turek came up with another smash before Janssens followed suit emphatically two points later to close the match, 10-4.
Dieringer had no illusions about where he and his fellow senior lost pace. Their first-serve percentage was far below 50 percent.
"They took advantage of our second serves; that's where we lost the match," Dieringer said.
Turek and Janssens enjoyed a sort of "home-court advantage," having played at Nielsen during the Badger Conference Tourney. Even with a scant crowd remaining, Janssens made himself at home.
"I kind of liked it and I just really felt right at home here," he said.
"It was definitely an advantage having played here," Turek said. "Everything's a little different. The lighting's strange."
That advantage will be gone at 1:30 p.m. today when the team tries to pull an incredible upset of Dirk VanRyboek and Phil Paradise of Madison Edgewood, the ladder's fourth seed with a 24-0 mark.
"We're just hoping we can give them a run at every point," Turek said. "Every time we've played them we've learned something about them."
The duos are friends off the court and Turek figures that even if Monroe's season ends today, hopefully they'll give the Crusaders the best battle-testing possible.
"If we can't pull the Cinderella story, we want to make sure they're sharp."
