Red Oak tennis faces tough week

It was a tough week for the Red Oak boys tennis team, as it dropped a close match to Shenandoah Tuesday, was edged by St. Albert was beaten by Glenwood Friday.Tuesday, head coach Dan Martinez’s squad almost made a comeback against Shenandoah during the doubles portion of the meet, but came up just short.In singles play, Weston Rolenc lost to Dalton Stoaks, 10-1, but Keatis Kunze and Jesse Taylor were able to make up for it by winning both their matches.Kunze defeated Devon Ashenfelter, 10-7, and Taylor defeated Brodie Jones, 10-5.Shenandoah closed out singles play with three straight wins, as Garrett Clark, John Laughlin, and Jacob Buzzard defeated Sean Griffin, Garrett Rolenc, and Colin Bruce.Clark defeated Griffin 10-5,Laughlin defeated Rolenc, 10-3, and Buzzard defeated Bruce 10-0.Even though Shenandoah went into doubles play leading 4-2 and only one win away from winning the match, Red Oak made the Mustangs sweat during doubles play.The brother combo of Weston and Garrett Rolenc defeated Ashenfetter and Clark, 10-5, and Kunze and Carlos Guerra defeated Laughlin and Buzzard 10-5.It was the match against the team of Taylor and Griffin vs. Stoaks and Jones in which Stoaks and Jones won, 10-6.The match later in the week against Glenwood wasn’t as close, as the Rams topped the, Tigers 9-0, Friday.There were some positives, to according Martinez, especially from Weston Rolenc who kept his singles and doubles match close, losing to Sam Lauritsen, 11-10, and in doubles with Jesse Taylor to Lauritsen and, Alex Chekal 11-9.In the other singles matches Kunze lost to Chekal, 10-4, Taylor lost to Aaron Bertini, 10-6, Garrett Rolenc lost to Adam Konfrst, 10-3, Griffin lost to Sean Harper, 10-2, and Bruce lost to Ethan Thompson, 10-0.In other doubles action Garrett Rolenc and Griffin lost to Bertini and Konfrst, 10-1. The team of Guerra and Keatis lost to Harper and Thompson, 10-6.There were other positives that came out of the week for Red Oak, as the Tigers also took on St. Albert at Lewis Central Thursday.Red Oak took that match, 5-4, and led with wins by Taylor, Garrett Rolenc, Sean Griffin and Colin Bruce in the singles portion of the match.Needing just one win in the doubles to take home the match win, Red Oak struggled during the doubles, as Weston Rolenc and Garrett Rolenc lost to Reed Miller and Cooper Bowman from St. Albert, 8-2, and the team of Taylor and Griffin lost to Travis Miller and Nathan Rhedin, 8-2.It was Guerra and Kunze who won the deciding match, as they handled the team of Trevor Rhedin and Christian Baer, 8-2, to take home Red Oak’s third win of the season.Earlier that day, Red Oak took on host Lewis Central, and the Tigers struggled against the Titans. Red Oak lost to Lewis Central, 7-2.The only singles win for Red Oak came when Taylor defeated Blake Elam, 8-5, while the other win came when Kunze and Guerra defeated the team of Grant Rodenberg and Calvin Fricke 8-4.Red Oak is now 3-4 on the season.