The Lakeland Hawks tennis team had their district tournament on May 10 and 11.
Lakeland tennis has been preparing for districts all season. Head coach William Ryan has been hoping to take a bigger group to state. As districts wrap up, they will be taking a mixed doubles team, a boy’s doubles team and a few alternates.
The boys finished second in districts with 52.5 points, while Sandpoint had 75.5. The girls only got 20.5 and finished behind Sandpoint and Moscow.
“I feel like the teams we are taking are good,” Ryan said. “You know the southern Idaho teams are very tough, but I believe our kids will compete well. We are practicing this week just like last week. We are working on hitting good serves and covering net volleys with their partner.”
Ben Ryan got third for boys’ singles. Brock Raebel and Jayden Ruelle placed first at districts and will be going to state for boys’ doubles. They won the first set by starting strong.
The second set was more of a struggle. They had to go into the tiebreaker. They persevered and got a lead, with the final point ending with an overhead at the net made by Raebel. The last match ended 6-4, 3-6 and 10-7.
“We went into the mindset prepared to do our best. With our mindset and communication together, we persevered,” Brock Raebel said. “Some things that went well for us were our great serves and placement. Our second match was our hardest. The team we went against were people who were experienced. We are going to put more effort in and outside of practice and go try and win state.”
Michael Pearson and Tucker Sitko won their first two matches and ended up placing third.
“I am so surprised at how well we did. We went in expecting to lose,” Pearson said. “We finally started trying on the last match, which put us in our heads.”
Toby Tebbe and Shelby Wear placed first for mixed doubles and are going to state, only having lost two matches throughout their season. They won their first match 7-5 and 6-3.
“Shelby and I communicate well and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Tebbe said. “We struggled in the first set of the championship but made a comeback and took both sets. We are working on our cross-court game and different positioning for serving.”
Amanda Olsen and Maverick Gerrior placed fourth for mixed doubles.
Charlotte Wiebach placed fourth for girl’s singles and will be going as an alternate.
“I am proud of myself,” Wiebach said. “I played some good games. I should have gotten third. I made a lot of mistakes in my last match. I am going to practice and work on the things that I struggled with during districts. I like how the tennis team makes me feel included, and I have made really nice friends.”
