The Minnewaska Area boys tennis team is hoping for another great season after going 11-8 last year, including a 5-1 mark in the WCC to place second behind NLS.

The Lakers, coached by Tara Reichmann and Chad Quelle, opened up the season Thursday, March 28 with two wins at an indoor triangular at Fargo.

Minnewaska beat Moorhead (5-2) and Thief River Falls (4-3) at the opening meet.  Results will be highlighted next week.  Next up is a home meet with YME, set for Tuesday, April 9.

Among the possible highlights of this season could be coach Reichmann earning her 500th career coaching win in tennis.  Reichmann, who recently completed her 24th season as the girls tennis head coach at Minnewaska Area, also has coached the Laker boys for 18 years and coached at Rochester for three seasons.

She is an unofficial 493-276 for her career and could pick up win No. 500 sometime in mid-April.

The Lakers lost only one player from last year’s team, Noah Palmer, who finished the season with an 18-4 overall record playing mostly at third singles.

•  Earning All-Conference for the Lakers last spring were Connor Quelle, Tenzin Dahl, Noah Palmer, Carter LeClair and Drew Bleick while Riley Thorfinnson earned recognition on the honorable mention team.

In team awards, Noah Palmer earned the Senior Leadership Award, Tyler Kohn and Drew Bleick were named Most Improved, Tenzin Dahl won the Sportsmanship Award, Marshall Kopp earned the Team Spirit Award and Landon Schiffler was named Rookie of the Year.

Drew Bleick and Carter LeClair both went 19-7 to finish the season with the most wins, while Ethan Klick was named the JV team’s Most Improved Player.  In addition, named to the All-WCC Academic team were Connor Quelle, Tenzin Dahl, Riley Thorfinnson, Drew Bleick, Carter LeClair and Landon Schiffler.

The Lakers finished 11-8 overall and 5-1 in the WCC last spring.  NLS beat the Lakers in a close match at MAHS, 5-2, to win the WCC title with a 6-0 record followed by Minnewaska Area (5-1), Benson-KMS (4-2), Montevideo (3-3), LQP-DB (2-4), MACCRAY-RCW (1-5) and YME (0-6).

The Lakers, coached by Tara Reichmann and Chad Quelle, were seeded fourth in the Section 8A Team Tourney, but fell to fifth-seeded Fergus Falls in the opener, 4-3.

Riley Thorfinnson and Landon Schiffler played in the Section 8A Individual Tourney, losing in the first round of singles, while Connor Quelle-Tenzin Dahl went 1-1 in doubles and Drew Bleick-Carter LeClair went 2-2 in doubles, finishing fourth overall.

Thief River Falls won the Section 8A team title with a 6-1 win over NLS in the finals.

Other boys tennis info

The Lakers had eight players with double-digit wins last season, including the first doubles’ pair of Carter LeClair and Drew Bleick, who both finished the season with a team-best 19-7 records.

Noah Palmer finished 18-4 playing mostly at third singles, while Tenzin Dahl was 17-7 mostly at second singles, Connor Quelle was 14-10 at first singles, Marshall Kopp (13-7) and Landon Schiffler (13-8) mostly at third doubles, and Riley Thorfinnson (10-11) at 4th singles-second doubles. 

Overall, Waska had 16 players with at least one varsity match last season and all but one return for the team this season.