CEC tennis concludes team season

The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton tennis team won a match and lost a match in Section 7AA play this week, ending the team’s dual meet season.

The ‘Jacks started out their playoffs with a convincing 6-1 win against Denfeld Monday afternoon.

The singles players were especially effective. Dylan Burslie won 6-1, 6-0 over Denfeld’s Brendan Johnson at No. 1 singles, while Sean Kedrowski beat Jeremy O’Conner by the same score at No. 2.

John Scheuer defeated Brody LeDoux by 6-3, 6-2 at fourth singles as well.

The ‘Jacks also swept the doubles matches. Jake Sorensen and Chase Pritchett were 6-1, 7-6 winners at first singles, Jon Hammitt and Ryan Kedrowski won their second doubles match 4-6, 6-4 (10-6), and Luke Heine and Ryan Lind won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 doubles.

“We got a little sweet revenge from the disappointing loss to Denfeld last week,” coach Steve Rickstrom said. “[Denfeld] changed up their lineup which proved to be a mistake as our top two singles had easy wins. Chase and Jake played one of their best sets of the year at No. 1 doubles and then held on for a nice win over quality opponents. Ryan and Jon fought hard to overcome a first set loss to get back in the win column.”

That set up a second round match against powerful Duluth East and though the ‘Jacks played well, they fell by a 6-1 team score.

The lone Cloquet win came in a dominating second doubles performance by Scheuer and Sean Kedrowski, as they defeated Eliot Anderson and Keegan Flaherty 6-0, 6-3.

Sorensen and Pritchett extended their match to a tie-break after splitting two sets against Andy Welinski and Greg Peckham.

“Our strategy coming into the match was to load up our doubles and to try to have Dylan or Zach come through at singles,” Rickstrom said. “Unfortunately, we just have to give East credit. They are the better team and we did what we could, but we fell short.”

Cloquet has two singles players and two doubles teams entered in the Section 7AA individual meet in Hibbing, which were in play as this edition went to press.

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