York boys ready to tackle Class B tennis field
LINCOLN – The York boys will hit the road Thursday for their season finale as the Class B state tennis tournament gets underway at Woods Tennis Center in Lincoln.
The road hasn't always been the smoothest for York on the courts this fall, but head coach Matt Fike said he feels confident about where the Dukes are heading into the state tournament.
"It's like any other sport in any season, there's always ups and downs. We've had some ups where we felt pretty good about what we were doing and we've had some downs where we've been disappointed, but that's the nature of it," he said. "I think we're ending on a high note with the way we played against Crete the other day going into the state tournament, so that feels good. All in all, I'm pleased with what we've done. We got our dual record back to .500 this year, which was something we did not do last year, and that's a thing to feel good about going forward."
The Dukes struggled a little bit with their consistency earlier in the season, Fike said, but the boys have improved in that regard as the fall has gone on. For example, the head coach said they're double-faulting less than they did earlier in the year.
That increased consistency has also come with improved decision-making.
"We're not always trying to hit winners from the baseline; more often than not, we're trying to hit a good shot so that we can set up a great shot. I like that, and I like how those things tie into having a good approach overall," Fike said. "We want to be confident in what we're doing but we also understand there's a way we have to go about doing things, so we don't put too much pressure on ourselves other than just trying to be as good as we can be on any given day, and I think the guys have done a good job of embracing that mentality."
York has benefited from the strong leadership of a four-man senior class featuring Wyatt Gartner, John Hartley, Eli Nething and Collin Kotschwar, each of whom Fike said work extremely hard and put in the extra effort required of good leaders.
Their head coach also said the seniors all play like they genuinely love the game, which makes things easy in terms of providing positive role models for the underclassmen to look up to.
The Dukes' path at state won't be easy. Gartner went 6-24 at lead singles and drew No. 8 seed Ace Calfee of Lincoln Christian in the opening round. Should he spring the upset, Gartner would likely face No. 9 seed JT Rein from GICC for a spot in the quarterfinals, where a match against top seed Ian Scott (Mount Michael) would likely await.
At No. 2 singles, Hartley went 20-9 and earned the No. 8 seed. The senior will kick off his state run against Gretna's Holden Dodson and would likely face No. 9 Will Tupper of Omaha Skutt in his next match. Win that, and Hartley would probably take on No. 1 Connor Chen of Mount Michael in the quarterfinals.
Both doubles pairings also got a tough draw; Nething and Kotschwar went 17-14 at lead doubles and will open against Gretna's Lucas Hack and Emmitt Dicke; win that and the duo would have to play top-seeded Patrick Killeen and Noah Sticklett of Mount Michael just to advance to the quarterfinals, where they would likely face either No. 8 Taylor Ablott/Austin Vontz (Adams Central) or No. 9 Kyle Kelly/Alec Menaugh (GICC).
At No. 2 doubles, junior Danny Burgess and sophomore Peter Dallmann went 18-13 during the regular season. Their opening match is against the Alliance duo of Riley Best and Adrian Valdez; should they win that, Burgess and Dallmann will play No. 1 Dominic Beninato and Peter Killeen from Mount Michael.
If Dallmann and Burgess can spring the upset to advance to the quarterfinals, they would likely face either No. 8 GICC (Max Friesen/Henry Schrad) or No. 9 McCook (Landon Kmoch/Sutton Labrie).
Despite the difficult draw, Fike said his message to the guys has been to just focus on the match in front of them.
"Who we're matched up really doesn't matter. I want to be as focused as we can on us and not so much who we're playing," he said. "As far as what we're doing in terms of getting ready, we're not going to spend the next couple days trying to reinvent ourselves. The things that we're good at we're going to try and polish, and the things that might be a weakness for somebody we're going to try and make as shiny as possible. At this point in the season we are who we are, and that's okay because we've done some really good things with who we are this year."
Regardless of how things shake out on the courts Thursday, Fike said his primary goal for the week is that the Dukes enjoy the moment and relish the state experience.
"What we talked about today is first and foremost to just enjoy the process. I want them to really appreciate and enjoy the moment they're going into," he said. "You always want to have as many guys as you can make it to the second day and I want to go back Friday playing tennis, not watching tennis, but more than anything I just want them to enjoy it. It's been a fun ride, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we're able to do over a couple days this week."
