It was a successful trip to Omaha last weekend for head coach Don Hansen and his men’s and women’s tennis squads. The men came out firing and placed second behind St. Cloud State. The women also did well finishing in sixth place.

On the men’s side it was a competitive weekend with evenly matched teams. The Jacks ended the regular season in style by pasting rival Minnesota State-Mankato in Brookings last week and taking a full head of steam to the NCC tournament in Omaha, NE.

Making the most waves for the Jacks was freshman phenomenon Steve Grantz, who took no prisoners on his waltz through the singles bracket, dismantling St. Cloud’s Travis Marohi 6-2, 6-3 in the number five singles final.

Number one singles player Ben Barnes finished second in singles action and Ihab Haleweish finished third at number six singles.

The men also faired well in the doubles bracket as the number one team of Barnes and Jeff Everson took second place, the number two doubles tandem of Lucas Hoover. Brian Hylle placed third, as did the number three doubles squad of Steve Grantz and Keaton Raymond.

The women’s squad came home with a sixth place finish though the weekend’s powerhouses UNO and UND ran away with most of the honors. The young squad faired well overall, making sure that any win at the tournament over SDSU was going to be a battle.

Top finishers for the Lady Jacks were third place honors that were awarded to number four singles player, sophomore Emily Rollins and number five singles player, Jen Creed.

Both Rollins and Creed won their consolation matches convincingly as Rollins beat USD’s Michelle Hogan and Creed defeated Augustana’s Lindsey Agnitsch. At number five singles, Kari Markell took fifth place honors by beating Augustana’s Katie Bohl in straight sets.

Both the men and women’s squads finished the year strong at the conference tournament. The women finished the year with a 4-12 record while the men compiled a 6-12, including a four-match winning streak to end the year. Both teams will be bringing back some battle-tested experience next year, which should make them forces to be reckoned with at the Division I level.

The Lady Jacks, like their male counterparts, are starting to show improvement and gain needed momentum.

The women’s squad recorded quality victories over the University of South Dakota, the University of Sioux Falls, and Dordt College (IA).

Head coach Don Hanson said his young line-up is starting to gel nicely and make noticeable progress.

The Lady Jacks also lost a heart-breaker to Minnesota State-Mankato this past weekend, losing 5-4. This tough conference loss for the Rabbits dropped their season record to 3-6.

Looking ahead, the Lady Jacks have some important conference matches before the season ends.

MSU-Mankato will come calling again and the squad will also be facing in-state foe Augustana College before the end of the year.

The women’s squad will be traveling with the men this Wednesday to play the University of Sioux Falls at McKennan Park.

After the matches against USF, both the men and women will be packing their bags for a long journey down to Kansas to play in a tournament hosted by Emporia State University.

After a somewhat slow season start, the men’s tennis squad is now beginning to rev its engine up to full throttle. Between tough opponents and early season rust, the Jacks are beginning to show significant signs of improvement.

Last weekend the men dropped a tight 5-4 match to conference foe Minnesota State-Mankato. After losing all three doubles matches, things didn’t look good for the squad.

Then they came screaming back to win four of six singles matches, giving the Mavericks a run for their money.

Before their Mankato match-up, the Rabbits picked up their first two wins of the year against Dordt College (IA) and the University of Minnesota-Morris, respectively.

Against both opponents the Jacks showed no mercy, winning both matches 9-0.

Senior and number one singles player Ben Barnes said the team’s improvement was due to its ability, “to move practice from indoors to outdoors really helps.”

“Everyone is playing a lot more solid and consistent right now,” Barnes said.

The Rabbits have a match-up scheduled against their in-state rival, University of Sioux Falls. The match will take place at 4:00 p.m.Wednesday at McKennan Park in Sioux Falls.

Men drop two to WSU

The SDSU men’s tennis team has begun this season by being thrown into the fire.

After dropping their first match of the year to St. Joseph’s team last week, life did not get any easier as they headed to Winona State University this past weekend.

The Jacks lost their first match to WSU 8-1. The lone win for the men came from number one singles player Ben Barnes, who beat Daniel Claire in straight sets.

The Jacks’ number three player freshmen Steve Grantz lost a close three set match to Winona State’s Kyle Buchmeier. SDSU also played tough in all three of the doubles matches in close losses.

The University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse came calling for the Jacks in the next match, and prevailed – beating the Rabbits 7-2. The wins for SDSU came at number one single, Barnes, and number one doubles, Barnes and Jeff Everson).

Barnes, now boasting a 3-0 singles record, made easy work of UWL’s Drew Pollek, beating him 6-0, 6-2.

Together again for the first time this season after success last year, Barnes and Everson scored a quality win for the Jacks at besting Drew Pollek and John Palmer by a score of 8-6.

Head Coach Don Hansen is once again going through the tough task that all tennis coaches must go through: finding a line-up that can win.

Some jugglingwill happen on the doubles side, and kinks on the singles side are currently being worked out.

As soon as Hanson finds the right combination is found he predicts that the Jacks will be a force to be reckoned with.

Next up for the Jacks will be the University of Sioux Falls this Friday at Woodlake Athletic Club in Sioux Falls.

Women lose first two

The SDSU women’s tennis team shared the same fate as the men’s squad did at WSU this weekend, losing twice.

Unlike the men’s team, however, these matches were the first of the season for the Lady Jacks. The women’s opponents were also WSU and UW-LaCrosse.

These teams proved to be tough for the Jacks, as they dropped both matches 9-0.

The women’s first match, against WSU, did show some signs of optimism. The ladies pushed WSU into three-set matches at three of the six singles slots.

Number two singles player, Kari Markee, forced Megan Newbauer into the three set decision. Also, the Jacks’ fourth (Laura Klinkhammer) and fifth (Jen Creed) singles players also battled their opponents to third-set thrillers.

In their second match of the weekend, the women’s team came up against a very skilled UW-LaCrosse squad.

The UWL squad was simply too much to handle for the youthful Jacks.

The Jacks lost all their singles matches in straight sets and also struggled on the doubles side of the net.

As was suspected, the women’s biggest challenge this year will be their inexperience.

Even though the squad struggled this weekend, the season is young and more practice time is needed before the Jacks can show their true colors.

Head Coach Don Hansen will continue to make line-up moves where he finds necessary to give the Jacks their best chance at winning matches.

The women will now focus their sights on the rivaled University of South Dakota.

That match will take place this Friday in Sioux City, Iowa.