EAST TROY — The Cheesemakers capped off a strong season by sending two to state in boys tennis. Seniors Aaron Roidt and Chris Giasson did just enough at the May 24 WIAA Division 2 sectional in East Troy to punch their ticket to Nielsen Stadium in Madison.
The pair enter the state tournament 16-10 overall, though two of those losses were to other Division 2 opponents in Edgewood and Catholic Memorial at the sectional. The only other D2 loss during the season for the pair was a regular season match against Edgewood. This is Roidt’s second straight appearance at state, and Giasson’s first.
The tandem won their subsectional match on May 23 to advance to sectionals, then scored an opening round win over St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy, 7-5, 6-4, which qualified them for state.
“They played well and showed some great poise in a high-pressure match,” said coach Matt Bordner. Roidt and Giasson lost their second-round match to Catholic Memorial and third round to Edgewood. “We had a one game edge for most of the first set, but Edgewood did a nice job of flipping one of our service games and took the first set. After that, Edgewood just played a little looser and more aggressive and took the second set as well.”
The WIAA state tournament is set for June 2-4 at Nielsen Stadium in Madison. Roidt and Giasson will play in their first-round match at approximately 10:30 a.m. June 2. Their opponent was unknown at press time.
The Cheesemakers actually qualified all three doubles teams to sectionals. At No. 2, Wes Saunders and Ethan Towne won both matches at the Portage subsectional to advance. In East Troy, Catholic Memorial knocked off the pair in the first round, and the duo won the third-place match over No. 1-seeded Viroqua in a tiebreaker 7-5, 1-6, 10-6.
“Ethan and Wes are my first No. 2 doubles team to advance to sectionals since I’ve started coaching,” Bordner said. “It was really awesome for our guys to pull off that win (over Viroqua) and finish their season on a high note.”
At No. 3 doubles, Dante Giordano and Mitch Ferguson weren’t quite as lucky. After winning both subsectional matches — also Bordner’s first 3-doubles tandem to advance to sectionals — the pair faced Catholic Memorial in the first round at East Troy. Giordano, an Italian exchange student, was injured with the two teams tied at 2-2 in the first set, and Catholic Memorial went on to win 6-2, 6-1.
“Unfortunately, Dante rolled his ankle pretty bad during a point. He finished out the match but was very limited with his movement and we decided to forfeit their third-place match as he was in quite a bit of pain and not moving very well,” Bordner said.
At the subsectional, the Cheesemakers didn’t advance any singles players, though has some strong performances otherwise.
“(No. 1 singles) Matthew Setterstrom was the 7-seed playing the 2-seed and played a great match. He really had his opponent on his heels down the stretch and Matthew pushed it into a match tiebreaker, but wasn’t quite able to close it out. I was really proud of this match from him and proud of the great season he had,” Bordner said. “Ryan Mathiason won his first No. 2 singles match versus Edgerton handily, and then had a really difficult draw against an undefeated No. 2 seed from Edgewood. Ryan played well but didn’t have enough. He was a huge part of our success this season and I’m really excited about his future.
“Gavin Eckerman (No. 3 singles) had the 4-vs.-5 seed matchup, which we knew would be close. He played well, but didn’t end up doing enough to win against an opponent that went on to upset the No. 1 seed and advance to sectionals.”
At No. 4 singles, Max Petitjean won his first match against Edgewood, then played a close first set against Viroqua.
“I think he lost some steam after losing that set tiebreaker, as he didn’t get the results he wanted in the second set. Max had tremendous growth this season and I’m excited about him next year,” Bordner said.
