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Baumann, Fletcher advance to individual section finalsNorth Branch juniors Britt Baumann and Matt Fletcher advanced in the individual tennis sections last week to earn berths in the section finals Tuesday, May 27 at Hibbing. As the No. 2 seed in subsections, Baumann advanced by defeating Jeff Randall of Forest Lake in the second round. He won in two sets, 6-1, 6-0. Baumann received a bye in the opening round. Fletcher came into subsections as the No. 3 seed. He defeated Jacob Lille of Princeton in two sets, 6-1, 6-1. Fletcher went on to defeat Micah Pearson of Cambridge in two sets, 6-1, 6-3. ìBritt is playing really good tennis right now,î Head Coach Mike Lizotte said. ìMatt only gave up six total games in two victories and seems to have regained some of the step in his game.î In doubles play, Craig Beecher and Steve Goranson advanced with a win in the first round, but were eliminated with a loss in the second round. Baumann and Fletcher were scheduled to take part in the individual finals Tuesday at Hibbing. It took wins from all three doubles teams to pull off a victory against the Bluejackets in the opening round. The teams of Steve Goranson and Craig Beecher, Lance Arbogast and Rolando Leal and Justin Mahlke and Kadin Farah all defeated their opponents. On the singles side, Baumann picked up the lone victory for the Vikes. Goranson and Beecher defeated their opponents in three sets, 7-6, 5-7, 6-3. Arbogast and Leal won in two sets, 6-2, 6-3 and Mahlke and Farah won in three sets, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2. Baumann won in two sets, 6-2, 7-5. Lizotte was pleased with how well Leal and Arbogast played at No. 2 doubles. ìThey have worked well together all year and area playing with a lot of confidence right now,î he said. After losing the first set, Mahlke and Farah battled back to win the next two sets for an all-important team win. ìThey had a very solid third set,î Lizotte said. In the next round, North Branch ended its team season with a 4-3 loss to Forest Lake. Baumann, Fletcher and Leal all won in singles play, but the squad lost all three doubles matches. Baumann won a 6-0 shutout in the first set, and won the second set 6-2 in his match. Fletcher won 7-6, 6-4 and Leal won 6-2, 7-5. The three doubles losses were not surprising to Lizotte. Five of the six doubles players for Forest Lake are experienced seniors. ìForest Lake is very strong in doubles, so we loaded up our singles in an attempt to sweep all four singles points.î Beecher played at No. 4 singles, and sent the match into three sets. ìHe lost a close first set, but came back and won the second set,î Lizotte said. ìThe entire match came down to one set of tennis, and it just didnít fall in place for us tonight,î adding that Beecher played an excellent round of tennis. Beecher lost the first set 4-6, won the second 7-5 and fell in the third set 3-6. Lizotte told the team before the match to concentrate on technique, not the end result of the match. ìBaumann played one of his better matches of the year,î he said. ìFletcher and Leal also had straight set victories and really competed on every point.î ìWe knew we would have to raise the level of our game in order to compete tonight and that is exactly what we did,î Lizotte said. ìI told them that we needed to be more aggressive.î Section finals were held Tuesday at Hibbing, with the state tournament set for June 3-6. ©ECM Post Review |