MONROE — The Cheesemakers tennis team capped its regular season with a 4-3 dual loss to Edgerton in a nonconference match Sept. 30.
“This was our last dual of the season, and it was a very contested match,” Monroe coach Matt Bordner said. “Our doubles teams played well, and unfortunately we couldn’t get anything out of our singles lineup tonight.”
Monroe won all three doubles matches, but lost all four singles matches. At No. 1 doubles, Grace Tostrud and Jensen Christensen continued their remarkable season by blanking Taylor Shaw and Kelsey Lien 6-0, 6-0. Sisters Kerstin and Kylie Miller defeated Jordan Bauer and Johanna Rusch at 2-doubles 6-3, 6-1. Ava Petitjean and Sadie Conway picked up another win at 3-doubles, knocking off Isabella Gilmour and Karlye Smrecek 6-3, 7-6 (6).
“All of our doubles teams played well tonight. I thought our patience was solid, and we set ourselves up for winning points at the net,” Bordner said.
In singles play, Monroe’s Emma Towne lost to Sylvia Fox 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Grace Mathiason fell victim to Kylee Houfe 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3 singles, and Kelli Polnow was blanked at 4-singles by Zoe Lien, 6-0, 6-0.
“Emma Towne had an off night. She set up a lot of nice points to finish at the net, but just struggled with closing out those points,” Bordner said.
The closest singles match was in the second flight, as Monroe’s Bekah Rath went to the wire with Ashley Ulset. Rath won the opening set but lost in a third-set tiebreaker 4-6, 7-5, 10-7.
“Bekah Rath played the tightest match of the night. Her and her opponent were very similar in playing styles and it was easily a 2-hour long match,” Bordner said. “They battled, and Bekah certainly had her chances to win the match. It came down to a few points that swung Edgerton’s way and you tip your cap to both players for a battle well-fought.”
Monroe now faces a quickly closing end to the season. The WIAA Division 2 subsectionals will be held at The Prairie School outside of Racine Oct. 7-8, with sectionals Oct. 10-11 at East Troy. Last year, Christensen and Tostrud advanced as a doubles team to the state tournament.
“It’ll be fun to see how our players do. It will be a very tough subsectional with a large number of private schools in our subsectional who are traditionally strong with tennis,” Bordner said. “Our girls have worked hard all season though, and so just leaving it all on the court on Monday will be our focus and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
