By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Experience will be the key to success for the Cheney High School boys' tennis team this season. The Blackhawks have a lot of it, with 10 seniors and 14 juniors making up the bulk of the 30-member squad. Five of those return from last year's varsity team that went 5-7 in Great Northern League match play and 5-8 overall and three of them - David Denenny, Paul Kauwe and Justin Bockstruck - being four-year varsity players.
Where that experience appears strongest right now is in doubles, beginning with seniors Kauwe and Bockstruck at the No. 1 slot. Kauwe started last year playing No. 3 singles, but teamed up midway through the season with 2010 graduate Tanner Tait.
The duo emerged as the No. 1 team and just missed a trip to state, losing in the semifinals to the eventual District 7 champs from Clarkston and to Pullman for the third and final slot. Bockstruck rotated between singles and doubles last year, competing at districts in the former.
Varsity newcomer senior David Vredevelt teams with junior returnee Jordan Bennett at No. 2 while seniors Peter Swanson and Nathan Mueller move up to varsity at No. 3.
Denenny returns for his second season at No. 1 singles. With the departure of Clarkston aces Dustin McConnell and Drew Adams, along with Deer Park's Alejandro Canseco, the Blackhawks senior should be one of the top singles players in the league.
“Unless there's some foreign exchange student I don't know about,” Cheney head coach Jesse Erickson said.
Junior returnee Jacob Weisgerber slides into the No. 2 slot, having spent a lot of last season teaming with senior Cannon Dickson, who takes the No. 3 slot this year, in doubles. Varsity newcomer junior Alin Walls completes the roster at No. 4 singles, bringing height at the net opponents may find difficult to get around.
Like their female counterparts the Blackhawks opened 2011 last Saturday in Moses Lake, losing 3-4 to the host Chiefs in what was to be a three-team jamboree with Othello.
In singles Denenny fell behind 0-5 in the first set to Tyler Knapp, rallied to 3-5 but ended up losing 3-6, 5-7 at No. 1, playing much better tennis in the second game Erickson said. Weisgerber showed his strength at the net, but also his need to work on his approach shots in losing 3-6, 4-6 to Connor Roreis at No. 2.
Dickson played smart and used good ball movement to down Chris Jones at No. 3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 while Walls' height and surprising confidence in his first ever varsity match led him to a 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 win over Cody Jones at No. 4.
In doubles play Kauwe and Bockstruck lost 5-7, 2-6 to Josh Black and Levi Huddleston at No. 1; Vredevelt and Bennett showed an aggressive style in downing Nat Mengist and Nathan Sanchez 6-4, 2-6, (7-5) at No. 2 while Swanson and Mueller showed a weakness at the net in losing 6-3, 0-6, (3-7) to Tiernan Hall and Dallas Pryor. But if volleys weren't quite the Cheney duo's strong point, they weren't alone.
“We've all got to work on really attacking the net and getting up there before the other team does,” Erickson said.
Overall for a team playing with only a couple practices on the courts Erickson was pretty pleased with the way his players performed. “The effort was there,” he said. “Considering what we had to deal with in the weather, it was a good outing.”
And for the eight-year Cheney head coach, that start might bode well for the Blackhawks' chances in league, beginning this Friday at home against Pullman.
“I think we'll give other teams a good run,” Erickson said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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