MADISON — Jensen Christensen and Grace Tostrud played this season as Monroe’s No. 1 doubles team. As it turns out, they are the No. 2 tandem in the entire state. The pair of Cheesemakers finished second in the WIAA Division 2 state tournament, losing to unbeaten Xavier duo Erika Curtin and Ellie Macksood in the championship, 6-0, 6-2.

“I think just walking away we feel really proud of the girls,” Monroe coach Matt Bordner said after the championship match, held Oct. 19 at UW-Nielsen Tennis Stadium. “To start this season, we didn’t know what we were working with. We knew we had a returning state qualifier in our doubles team. The goal was to get better and they did.”

The second-place finish is the highest finish in Monroe’s girls program history. The only individual champion in school history was in boys doubles in 1948, when Richard Kundert and Ernest Volger came out on top.

“My goal was to look at some of those records after the season was over, because I knew they were making a special run,” Bordner said. “If you asked us Day 1 if Grace and Jensen would be in the state championship … we weren’t exactly aiming that high. Kudos to them for every day after practice they would stay and hit for an hour. They just worked their butts off.”

Macksood and Curtin (34-0) were on another level against Christensen and Tostrud (25-5). The Cheesemakers struggled returning shots, as the Xavier pair sent missiles from corner to corner with ease. Macksood’s intensity was palpable across the stadium.

“Their energy kind of got to me at least, at least with their crowd going crazy after every point, even if it was our mistake. It was still a nice match. Those two games were really nice to get,” Christensen said.

Able to take two games in the second set, the Cheesemakers avoided getting shutout in the finals.

“Given the circumstances after playing such a long match before that, we did a really good job,” said Tostrud, who also admitted, “we didn’t necessarily play our best match” in the championship.

Getting to the finals was no small task, either. In the semifinals earlier in the day, Monroe had to overcome University School of Milwaukee’s Grace Gridley and Stephanie Guy, who beat the Cheesemakers at sectionals in three sets.

“I was a little bit nervous, but I was also more confident because we’ve played them before, and that it was so close of a match we knew we could play with them and beat them,” Tostrud said.

The 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 win was harder fought than it appeared. USM (20-5) won the opening game of the match and later led 3-2 before Monroe rallied to win four of the next five games. 

In the second set, the Cheesemakers opened with a win in the first game, only to drop the next two and trail 2-1. 

Christensen lost confidence in her serve during the second set, double-faulting multiple times. It wasn’t until Tostrud hammered down a shot from in front of the net that Christensen was able to shake off struggles.

“She was my anchor today and really kept me going,” Christensen said of Tostrud.

Despite getting down 3-2, the duo rallied to go up 5-4 and sit a point away from advancing to the finals. 

However, USM came back and won a deuce to even the score at 5-5 before eventually forcing a third set.

“We’ve been in those spots before and I think if they would have saw a match like that last year they wouldn’t have responded the same way,” Bordner said.

Monroe fell behind 3-1 in the third set, and between games, assistant coach Cameron Knobel stepped onto the sidelines to offer some encouragement.

“He just told us to keep our head up. He knew that we could play with them and beat them. We needed to have confidence in ourselves and play our game,” Tostrud said.

The Cheesemakers took on a visible new look of determination and went on to take the final five games to advance to the championship. None of the five games even reached deuce.

“I was just proud that we kept our heads in the game and got back up after losing in the second and being down in the third,” Christensen said. “That was a really good match, and I’m really proud of it for us.”

Bordner said his senior duo showed the mental toughness needed to pull off the rally.

“They kept fighting. We told them they have to just stick around in this match and see if the tide would change — and it did. They got the spark they needed, and the rest was history,” Bordner said. “Huge grudge match against University School. I couldn’t be prouder. It’s unbelievable.”

Preparation for championship black and white

The differences between Xavier’s state champion and Monroe’s runner-up are almost night and day. 

Xavier, based in Appleton, has ample indoor facilities to play year-round. During the season, most matches are a short 10- to 20-minute drive from campus. And that’s not to mention the various professional training that can come in and out of season.

“I think we are at a disadvantage — especially compared to some of these private schools. They have facilities we don’t. Places we’ve traveled to this year have indoor courts right at their high school. That’s such an advantage,” Bordner said.

Monroe has no indoor tennis facility, and depending on court availability, drive times could be nearly an hour away. Professional assistance is non-existent in Green County, and Bordner has said it’s taken a village to raise the program.

“We have ways that we’re ramping up our program. Our summer tennis is becoming a bigger focus, and I think more than anything, this year we just had a great group of seniors and our practices — we didn’t have one bad practice this year,” Bordner said.

In fact, Bordner himself is new to the sport. Three years ago, after student teaching, he was asked to become a tennis coach despite having very little knowledge of it.

“I look at myself as a coach and a few years ago I knew nothing about tennis. Since then, I’ve had a lot of great mentors,” Bordner said. “The program is young — not just with the players, but the coaches, us too. Part of that is nice because we can really go out and play for the fun of the sport. The other part is we are constantly learning.”

Bordner said he likes to pick the brains of other coaches during conversations, and that the camaraderie in the tennis community is a blessing. He said that many other coaches just want to see the sport grow.

“The Freeport coaches have been very helpful, and I’ve gotten to know them very well. They’ve done a fantastic job of working with me and teaching me techniques that we can use,” Bordner said.

Christensen and Tostrud entered the 2018 season as possible singles players, only to be paired up. They ended up qualifying for state before getting knocked out. Coming into this year, the duo kept on practicing during the summer.

“I’m just really happy that we got to play together. We’ve been closer as friends and partners since we’ve been playing together. It’s been a really fun experience. Even the singles years, we were close friends — those were rough years — but it’s just nice to have Grace by your side,” Christensen said.

Tostrud has now seen action in a state tournament in six different seasons — thrice with the girls basketball team, twice in tennis and in softball this past spring. 

“Keep getting second,” Tostrud said with a laugh. Advancing to state in other sports has helped, Tostrud said, though she admits tennis is “a completely different sport. It’s not as much of a team sport as the others — I basically just have Jensen. But I would say it helps because I know I have to stay focused and keep my energy up.”

Bordner said Tostrud’s gifted athletic ability — and cool head — allows her to stay on top of her game despite only being able to give a couple of months of focus out of the year to the sport.

“You look at a girl like Grace Tostrud — she’s a three-sport athlete and she’s not dedicating a ton of time to tennis, and yet, here she is at the state tournament. She’s just a great athlete,” Bordner said. “Jensen, she put in offseason work and went to the UW-Whitewater camp — she’s just been living in tennis the last two years and that turned out well for her.”

Tostrud is sad to see the duo’s time together end, and the pair only showed signs of tears long after the championship match had ended.

“Over the past four years we’ve gotten closer and she’s become one of my best friends. I just am so proud of how well we played together, especially last season and this season,” Tostrud said.

All five of the duo’s losses this season were to state qualifying teams. 

“They have a lot of fun and a lot of chemistry. We’re going to miss coaching them because they are a fun pair and complement each other well,” Bordner said. “Grace has the height and can really take over, and Jensen has such a strong backhand and can do strong things at the net, too. All tournament long they played well and did what we wanted them to do.”

Getting to Saturday

By Mark Nesbitt 

Unified News Group

MADISON — Monroe seniors Jensen Christensen and Grace Tostrud, at No. 1 doubles, pulled out a nail-biting three set win over The Prairie School’s Molly Cookman and Andrea Palmen 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a third-round match on Oct. 18 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison. Cookman and Palmen finished the season 14-9.

“It means a lot because we have worked hard for this the last four years,” Tostrud said. “It’s been really fun playing with her (Christensen) the last two seasons. I’m just really proud of her.”  

After pulling out the first set in a third-round match on Friday, the third-seeded Christensen and Tostrud jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the second set. 

The senior duo hit a rough stretch losing four straight games to drop the second set 6-3. After losing the first game of the third set, Christensen and Tostrud faced some adversity.

“I think we just lost confidence in our shots,” Tostrud said. “We relied on each other, talked to each other. It was a matter of hitting with confidence.”

The duo won two straight games to take a 5-4 lead. Christensen had an ace to start the next game and helped the Cheesemaker tandem pull out a thriller.

Winning a three-set match could be a drain on some tennis players. Christensen and Tostrud took winning their first match at state as a spark.

“I think it’s confidence building knowing that even if we are not playing our best we can come back and win,” Tostrud said. 

Christensen and Tostrud then rolled over Xavier junior Kylie McCormick and sophomore Carly Bomier 6-1, 6-2 in a quarterfinal match. McCormick and Bomier (27-6) upset sixth-seeded and previously unbeaten Watertown Luther Prep juniors Alethia Schmidt and Abigail Schewe.

Earning a third seed at state was a little bit of a surprise before the tournament started. Christensen and Tostrud proved they belonged with the elite No. 1 doubles teams.

“We put a lot of work in during the season to try to get this far,” Christensen said. “We were hoping to be four or five (seed). We didn’t expect going all the way to three. It’s nice to know the wins throughout the season have helped us being placed this high. A lot of the top teams were from our sectional.”