Slow Burn: Arrow netters advance to team semifinals with 5-2 comeback victory over Eagles


It wasn’t clearly evident that Pipestone Area head tennis coach Ed Gustafson’s heart was palpitating, but it appeared as though his Arrows were bent on stressing him out in the early stages of the Section 3A team quarterfinal match-up between No. 4 PAS and No. 5 Lac qui Parle Valley Monday afternoon in Pipestone.

The Arrows, who had beaten the Eagles 5-2 during regular-season play May 3, were trailing in all but two of the seven matches after one set. As if teasing the Eagles, however, the Arrows came back in 3-of-5 matches to again claim a 5-2 victory and advance to Tuesday’s (May 21) semifinal round against No. 1 Worthington in Redwood Falls.

“I think there were plenty of nerves, but I’m just happy they came through for us,” Gustafson said. “They all dropped the first set, so they had to go the distance and play all three sets.”

Pipestone Area seniors Dalton Pottratz and Cade Baartman were the lone players to come through their matches unscathed, respectively beating Pedro Lodavico and Levi Olson by scores of 6-3, 6-4, and 6-1, 6-0, at Nos. 3 and 4 singles.

Baartman was the first to get off the court to cheer his teammates on, as he again proved extremely difficult to push the ball past while making the most of an improved serve. 

“My backhand was pretty good today, and just getting the ball back; Gus calls me ‘the wall,’ so I just try to hit it back and make them make a mistake,” he said. “I’ve been working hard on my serve, too, and it’s come around a lot this year… working on it every day at practice and even after a little bit.

“I know Gus is going to be very upset if we don’t pull this match out. He wants us to get our first section win, at home, in a long time, so he’s expecting a lot out of us today.”

Although he momentarily lost focus in his match, Pottratz followed suit and joined Baartman in rooting his mates on from the sideline.

“It was not supposed to go that long,” Pottratz said of his match. “I was getting upset with myself, and I wasn’t too happy about a few (line) calls, but I hit my strokes well and got back into it after a while. 

“I’m good at knowing what works against my opponent, and moving him around seemed to work well. I used that to my advantage and finished it off in two sets. Hopefully, we’ll pull it out today and move on to play tomorrow in Redwood.”

Those hopes were realized through the marathon efforts of the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles teams of Cole Paulson and Isaac Stiles and Jaden Lorang and Ryan Woodbury, and No. 2 singles player Riley Longstreet. 

Paulson and Stiles roared back from a 0-1 deficit (2-6) with relative ease against LQPV’s No. 2 doubles tandem of Wylie Weibe and Heath Buer. Better placement and pace proved the best approach for the Arrow duo, as the pair claimed the match at 6-2, 6-1 over the second and third sets.

“We were hitting better shots and more confident shots,” Paulson said. “We had much better placement with our shots and took a lob when we needed to to keep it away from the net player.”

“We also hit our shots harder,” Stiles added. “We played it a little smarter in the second and third sets.”

For Lorang and Woodbury it was simply a matter of warming up before they put forth their best effort against Liam Risch and Jackson Buer.

“I don’t know where we were in that first set,” Woodbury explained. “We came out, weren’t moving and had to wake up.”

“I think we could have used a little more time to warm up,” Lorang added. “We were just not playing our tennis at the beginning.”

And their ‘tennis,’ for a side that usually has superior height and reach, is often about net play. Throughout the second and third sets of their 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, victory, the PAS freshmen put away shot after shot at the net while also putting more emphasis on their serves.

“We just had to put it away at the net and not let them put it over for a point,” Woodbury said. “That’s how we came back.

“We also wanted to used our height, and I got my serve going better in the second set,” Lorang said. “I just needed to get some practice with my serve and get warmed up. I was not warmed up coming out, so that was a big part of it.”

After dropping the first set of his match to LQPV’s Colton Husby, 4-6, Longstreet used a precision lob shot to even the tilt at a set apiece in the second (6-1). Although the third set proved more difficult, the PAS senior came through with a match-winning 6-4 result in the final frame.

Although he came out on the wrong end of a 6-7 (4-7), 4-6 scoreline against Gavin Olson, PAS junior Jackson Winter played a strong match at No. 1 singles. When not finding the alleys for winners, Winter often forced Olson to push the ball long with a blistering forehand of tricky backhand drop shot.

“Jackson played very well today; he had a chance to close out that first set but dropped it in a tiebreaker,” Gustafson said. “Our singles are going to be okay, I think, they just have to stay consistent and continue to work hard.”

As for the No. 1 doubles team of seniors Taylor Mollema and Cory Cooper, their proactive approach proved counterproductive throughout their 2-6, 3-6 loss to Jake Lee and Tyler Buer. Too often returns were needlessly hammered back, usually sailing long or well below the tape.

And to beat the top-seeded Trojans in the team semifinals, Gustafson knows he’ll need his Nos. 1-3 (doubles) to be playing their best tennis.

“We’re going to have to compete in all the doubles matches,” Gustafson said. “Our (Nos.) 3 and 4 singles are also going to have to compete well, but it’s the doubles who are really going to have to step up. They have to go out, be confident and give their best effort, that’s all we need tomorrow.”