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Baumann takes conference title as top singles playerNorth Branch sophomore Britt Baumann continued his consistent play by making all-conference and winning the Rum River Conference championship with tough singles play last week. Baumann won four matches in a row, three of which were against all-conference players at the conference meet May 9. He started his march to the championship by defeating a Princeton opponent 8-2. He then played six straight sets of great tennis, according to head coach Mike Lizotte, defeating Pine City 6-1, 6-0, Chisago Lakes 6-1, 6-4 and finally defeating OíDonnell from Pine City in the title match 6-4, 7-5. ìThis was the first time Britt has ever defeated or even stayed close to OíDonnell,î Lizotte said. ìIn all my years of coaching, I have never seen a North Branch player string together four matches like Britt did today. He was so focused for the entire day, playing smart tennis.î He said if Baumann remains focused, he will be tough to beat at sections May 22. Also achieving all-conference status was sophomore Matt Fletcher and junior Rolando Leal picked up an honorable mention. Fletcher had a tense first match, trailing 4-7 before coming back to tie it up at 7-7 against his opponent. He then fell behind 1-5 in the tiebreaker before coming back for the 7-5 win. He turned in his best performance of the year against Jeremy Burgin of Chisago Lakes, defeating him 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. ìBurgin tried different things but Matt seemed to have an answer for everything,î Lizotte said. ìHe just kept hitting winner after winner and made very few errors.î Leal went 3-2 on the day for all-conference honorable mention. ìHe battled all day and eventually ran out of gas,î Lizotte said. ìPlaying five matches in one day is an awful lot to ask out of a high school athlete. Both of Rolandoís losses were to eventual all-conference players.î Earlier in the week, the Vikings narrowly lost out to Champlain Park in a dual match, falling 4-3. ìWe had excellent play from all four of our singles players. Both Craig Beecher and Rolando Leal played very steady tennis in winning easily,î Lizotte said. Also picking up a win for North Branch was Baumann, who won in three sets. The team ends its regular season this week, with matches scheduled for Tuesday at Cambridge and at home against St. Francis Thursday. Team sections start next Monday and Tuesday, May 20-21. ©ECM Post Review |