Wauwatosa West Sports Shorts: May 12, 2016

WEST TENNIS

It was a tough week for the Wauwatosa West boys tennis team, losing to crosstown rival Tosa East and Woodland Conference West rivals Pius XI.

In a tough-luck loss to the Red Raiders, West dropped a 4-3 decision on May 4 at home.

Winners for the Trojans were No. 1 singles Nick Price(6-0, 6-2), No. 2 singles Alec Lau(6-2, 6-1) and No. 3 doubles Jacob Lueck/Danny Kuehn(6-4, 6-1).

"It was a very difficult match to lose," coach Kosta Zervas said. "We had opportunities to win this match, and we just didn't take advantage of them. Whenever we play our crosstown rival, emotions are high, nerves sometimes get the best of you and your play may suffer. I think we just lacked confidence in a few of our matches."

Zervas was classy as he tipped his hat to the Red Raiders.

"Our intensity was definitely up for this match, but we had trouble executing our game plans, which was disappointing," he said. "Kudos to Tosa East. They won the matches they needed and pulled out the victory. They just played better that day, and that was the difference."

Then West lost, 5-2, to Pius in another home match May 5.

Price (6-0, 6-0) and Lau (6-1, 6-3) rolled to the Trojans' only victories.

"Conference matches are the ones we need to focus on, and we struggled from the beginning," Zervas said. "Nick and Alec played very clean matches, and I was hoping we'd be able to do the same at the other spots. Our body language was not good. Once we got down in matches, it was hard for us to get motivated to get back into the match. I was disappointed in that.

"Lack of effort is never the case in any of our matches. We always play hard, but sometimes it's not good enough. I thought there were spots that we should have won, but we were, again, unable to string together points, hold our serve and win the big points. Another tough match to lose."

WEST SOCCER

The Wauwatosa West girls soccer team is tied with New Berlin Eisenhower with a 7-0-1 record in the Woodland Conference and 9-1-3 overall after going 2-0 last week.

They opened the week at home by beating New Berlin West, 2-0,

"We took a couple of injuries in the first 20 minutes, which caused us to have to switch lineups, but the girls were not phased," coach Ryan Bailey said. "We had 90 percent of the play but could not find the finish to break through until the end of each half."

The first goal came in the 44th minute as Emily O'Connellopened the scoring on a great sequence capped off by a ball in from Hannah Fuerstenau.

"The second half was more of the same in which we could not find the back of the net until six minutes remained (84th minute) when our build-up was once again simple and efficient," Bailey said.

O'Connell slotted a ball through to Anna Ganser, who finished it from the right side with great confidence.

"A big key to our victory was Chloe Pepke," Bailey said. "She is so versatile in what she does. She played four different positions to help stabilize us. Our bench also was instrumental. Anna Ganser, Irene Phillips, Lindsey Starrett, Kayla Stoffeland Emily Wagyall kept the level high when they entered."

Then on May 5 at Greendale, the Trojans battled and came away with a 1-0 road win.

"We controlled the game from start to finish and should've made the margin much larger," Bailey said.

The game winner came from O'Connell after she collected a shot by Kate Murphyoff the crossbar and calmly finished it only one minute into the second half.

"We had many chances to add to our lead but did not take advantage," Bailey said. "We again posted another clean shot and collected the three points as we planned."

WEST SOFTBALL

Coach Nick Heiting and the Wauwatosa West softball team had a good week, winning three of four games.

The Trojans opened with a 9-6 win at Brown Deer on May 2, rallying for the win. The Falcons led 6-4 when West put five runs on the board in the sixth to earn the victory.

McKenzie Bropheydrove in four runs, while Adie Daviespitched 22/3 innings, and Kaitlyn Nimmerpitched 41/3 innings but walked 10 batters and struck out five batters.

South Milwaukee took a 6-0 lead through two innings on May 3 at West and rolled to a 10-0 win in West's only loss of the week. Davies threw a six-inning complete game, walking four and striking out four while scattering 10 hits.

But then the Trojans closed out the week with two wins to improve to 6-14, 4-8 in the Woodland West Division.

With the score tied at 3-3, the Trojans exploded for five runs in the seventh inning to beat the Pirates, 8-3, at Pewaukee.

In the big seventh inning, Alli Schumachersingled and stole a base; then Nimmer was safe on a throwing error on her sacrifice bunt, with the error scoring Schumacher and sending Nimmer to second.

Melissa Biefeldsingled in Nimmer, and Margaret Radskesingled. Nicole Mystrowgrounded out, and Brophey reached on a fielder's choice when the Pirates threw home, and Biefeld went back to third to load the bases.

All three runners eventually scored on wild pitches as the Pewaukee pitcher was rattled.

Davies allowed one earned run in a seven-inning complete game, allowing four hits, four walks and two strikeouts.

Courtnee Smithhad a single and two RBIs, while Radske singled three times and scored twice.

Nimmer threw a five-hit shutout on May 6 in a 12-0 win over Pius XI. The Trojans scored four runs in the third, four in the fourth and three in the fifth to put the Popes away.

Radske scored three runs, singled twice, doubled and drove in a run; Brophey scored twice, singled and drove in two runs; Biefeld scored twice and singled twice; and Smith singled twice, scored a run and drove one in.

GOLF

The Wauwatosa East/West golf co-op finished third on May 9 at the fourth Greater Metro Conference mini-meet at North Hills Country Club.

Marquette won again with a 150, while Brookfield Central took second with 157 and Tosa was third with a 173.

Freshman Adam Garskeshot a 39 to lead Tosa, the only golfer to break 40. Noah Monty had a 43, Owen Knezel a 45, Noah Katula a 46 and Will Jushka a 50.

Through four mini-meets, Tosa ranks fifth out of seven teams (15 points) behind MUHS (28), Brookfield East (20), Brookfield Central (19) and Menomonee Falls (18). Hamilton (8), West Allis Hale (4) and West Allis Central (0) bring up the rear.

The GMC played an 18-hole mini-meet to make up for a rainout the previous week at Westmoor Country Club on May 2 to begin the week. Tosa finished fourth in the first nine holes (169) behind Jushka (41), Garske (42), Knezel (42), Monty (44) and Katula (45).

In the second nine holes, Tosa shot a 171 and finished fifth. Garske shot a 39, followed by Jushka (41), Katula (44), Knezel (47) and Monty (49).

Tosa played in their annual WOSA quad on May 6, winning with a score of 150.

Katula shot a 3-under par nine-hole score of 33 and was the medalist.

Garski shot a 40 as the individual player in the format.

Katula was partnered with Knezel, and Jushka teamed with John Frankin the two man Best Balls.

Monty and Jake Schultzplayed the two-man scramble portion of the event.

In the state rankings, Tosa was listed under "Others receiving votes."

— Compiled by Tom "Sky" Skibosh