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DHS singles find their matches

Durango boys tennis team defeats Central in its home opener

Singles players brought the heat for the Demons on a warm September afternoon.

All three singles players delivered wins Saturday morning for the Durango High School boys tennis team, and that helped the Demons claim a 4-3 team victory against Grand Junction Central in their home opener.

“It is awesome to see the top of the lineup really set the tone for the rest of the team,” DHS head coach Dave Weisfeldt said.

It started at the top with No. 1 singles player Fred Edwards, a sophomore who beat Cameron Thomas 6-2, 6-0.

Edwards’ serve was on point most of the match, and he wasn’t going easy with any of his second serves that followed a fault.

“My serve was doing pretty good, and I was going for it a lot,” said Edwards, son of Paul and Vivian Edwards. “Usually you don’t serve the second one very hard, but I was going for it, and that’s how I won the match was on that second-serve winner.”

Edwards, who said the jump from 2 singles to 1 singles this year has been challenging, said he wants to improve his backhand before regionals Oct. 3-4.

Weisfeldt said he expects Edwards to receive the No. 1 seed at the regional tournament.

“We want Fred to be challenged. We don’t want him to walk through all his matches, but it is kind of the nature of the beast for high school tennis,” Weisfeldt said. “He has to get through all comers to get that seed and be in the best position for regionals.”

No. 2 singles player Drew Downs, a senior, picked up a 6-1, 6-3 win against Brigham Beckstead, and Alijah Konikowski beat Bryce Atchison 6-3, 7-5 to round out the Durango singles.

“We were playing for awhile, so I was just glad it was over,” the sophomore Konikowski said of his match. “Consistency won that match for me.”

The lone DHS doubles team that earned a win was the duo of sophomore Jake Beekman and junior Amon Ledger-Swenson at No. 4 doubles against Will Ness and Corey Scholer. They won a third-set tiebreaker 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.

The No. 3 doubles team of seniors Blaise Paige and Riley Wanzek lost in a third-set tiebreaker 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 10-5 to Central’s Marcus Johnson and Kolby Stevens.

“It was great to see them passionate and caring and focused on getting their heads into the match,” Weisfeldt said of the No. 3 doubles team. “There was a lot of ebb and flow to that match, and it was good to see them competitive.”

DHS senior Jake Schanfarber and freshman Gavin Syme were beat at No. 1 doubles by Brent Bellinger and Josh May 6-2, 6-0. DHS junior Will Downs and freshman Micah Hwang also lost at No. 2 doubles 6-2, 6-4 to Kyle Abels and Ryan Larsen.

“Our doubles, we’re making progress,” Weisfeldt said. “We are concerned about 1- and 2-doubles, because they’ve been struggling recently, but we’re happy with the way they played (Saturday). They were staying in the points.”

DHS was scheduled to play four home matches in one week after they spent the beginning of the year entirely on the road. Tuesday’s match, however, against Montezuma-Cortez was moved to Cortez. DHS will play at home Friday against Grand Junction and Saturday against Montrose.

“We’re just gonna stomp Cortez and then stomp Grand Junction,” said Konikowski, son of Barbara and David Konikowski.

Weisfeldt is happy with how far the team has come this season, and he is looking forward to seeing how they perform at regionals.

“We know Steamboat is going be tough with top seeds at a lot of positions,” Weisfeldt said of regionals. “The one unknown we have is Aspen.

“We want to focus on peaking at the right time, especially at singles. They are confident about how they’re swinging the racket, and we want to sustain that into regionals. That’s what it’s all about; our team works for that state qualifier.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com

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