MONROE — The Monroe boys tennis team dropped its first dual of the season 5-2 to Fort Atkinson at home May 7.

“It was an excellent match and really good chance for us to gauge where we are at,” Monroe coach Matt Bordner said. “We had four pretty good practices this week before jumping right into our season. Many of our players played their first tennis match of their career today so to get that under their belt was really nice. Fort brought a short-handed but experienced team with quite a few seniors and I think our lack of experience was probably a big difference maker.”

The Cheesemakers scored wins at No. 2 singles and No. 3 doubles.

Playing in his first high school match, Ryan Mathiason beat Fort’s Logan Hamele 6-1, 7-6 (4). 

“(Mathiason) did really well. He beat a senior that has varsity experience, so for Ryan to do that coming in as a freshman shows his ceiling is fairly high,” Bordner said.

The No. 3 doubles tandem of Mitch Ferguson and Gavin Eckerman won their highly contested match 7-5, 6-3.

“Mitch and Gavin also both played their first high school match and had some success which was great to see. Mitch brings a lot of energy to the court and I think Gavin continues to be a pretty steady presence for a new player,” Bordner said.

In the top flight in the singles matches, Monroe’s Chris Andraski fell to Baptiste Billard 6-3, 6-1. Freshman James Seagreaves lost at No. 3 singles 6-4, 6-1, and Miguel Aragon lost at No. 4 singles 6-0, 6-4.

“Chris played a solid match at 1 singles. He will play there all season and knows how to battle, but his opponent was too much tonight. Chris hung around in the first set by avoiding unforced errors but his opponent just did a nice job of mixing up his shots on Chris as the match wore on and had a really nice serve too,” Bordner said. “James Seagreaves got off to a hot start in his first match as well. As he gets more comfortable, I think he will have a really nice career for us. He’s picked up on a lot of things very quickly, and is another kid that has played five days of tennis and just has an enormous ceiling as a high school tennis player.

“Miguel Aragon rounded out our singles lineup and bounced back from a rough first set to play a much more competitive second set. He’s also brand new, and so experience is key for him too.”

At No. 1 doubles, Charlie Frehner and Aaron Roidt fell in a close tiebreaker, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2). 

“The No. 1 doubles match was the match of the night. It lasted about three hours and was such a well-played match from both teams. All four players are great athletes and made some unbelievable shots throughout the match,” Bordner said. “We ended up coming up short, but for Charlie and Aaron to come out and play great tennis in their first match together was fantastic to see. Charlie’s groundstrokes were a real strength and Aaron really settled into the match with his net play. They both have things to work on but it was a great start to the season for them.”

Ethan Towne and Chris Giasson lost at No. 2 doubles 6-3, 6-2.

“Our No. 2 doubles struggled a bit but showed some promising things. Ethan has a nice feel for lobs and ball placement and just needs to continue to work on his backhands. Chris is still just so new and just needs a ton of tennis over the next month to work out some kinks,” Bordner said.

The tennis team was set to play May 11 at Stoughton, then is back home again May 13 against Milton.