Wauwatosa East tennis team beat Chargers, Bulldogs

The Wauwatosa East boys tennis team went 2-2 in dual meets this week and finished fourth at the Beaver Dam Invitational on May 10.

The Red Raiders opened the week on May 5 with a 5-2 win at Sussex Hamilton in the first of three conference matches.

Joe Oleniczak at No. 3 singles and Will Strohbusch at No. 4 singles earned two wins, and then the doubles teams swept.

No. 1 doubles of Jonah Robison/Jacob Erdtmann, No. 2 Michael Lockhart/Nate Wedel and No. 3 Patrick Brennan/Brad Larson all were victorious.

On May 6 the Red Raiders were blanked by state-ranked Marquette, 7-0, and then on May 7 they dropped a thriller to crosstown rival Wauwatosa West, 4-3.

Against Tosa West, Oleniczak and Strohbusch won at singles, but the third doubles team of Brennan/Erdtmann is the only other win the Red Raiders could come up with.

"I thought Tosa West played really well," said Tosa East coach Glen Slonac. "I was a little disappointed in the overall performance. We had a few matches that I felt we didn't play as well as we are capable of."

Tosa East then won its second Greater Metro Conference match of the week May 8, blowing away the West Allis co-op, 6-1.

Singles winners were No. 2 Jordan Crump, Oleniczak and Strohbusch. The doubles teams of No. 1 Jonny Vannucci/Jonah Robison, Wedel/Erdtmann and Brennan/Will Mead-Davies also won.

At the Beaver Dam Tournament on May 10, the Red Raiders finished fourth but were only a couple of points out of first.

"We lost a couple of close matches in the third set match tiebreakers, and if we win those, we win the tournament," Slonac said. "As a team we need to get better with our play in match tiebreakers. If we win a few more match tiebreakers, we would have won the meet.

"Overall we continue to perform well at the bottom of the lineup. As a team we need to continue to improve. We played good singles overall in the tournament but our doubles play was inconsistent."

No. 3 singles Joe Oleniczak took first.

"Joe continues to play well for us and is playing well in all aspects of his game," Slonac said.

Brennan/Erdtmann took first with a 3-0 record at No. 3 doubles.

"We continue to play well at third doubles," he said. "Jacob Erdtmann played well overall and did a good job of serving. They went through their first two matches winning fairly easy and in the finals won 7-5, 6-4.

Strohbusch finished second at No. 4 singles.

"Will has been having a really successful year," Slonac said. "Even though second sounds like a good finish — which it is — I think Will should have won his flight."

In the finals, he won the first set 6-1 and lost the second 7-6 and for the third set lost the tiebreaker 10-8.

Crump finished fifth (2-1) at No. 1 singles.

"He lost his first match and won his next two matches, played better as the day went on," Slonac said.

No. 2 doubles Lockhart/Wedel were 2-1 on the day, losing a close match in the first round, but then going to the back draw and finishing fifth with two wins.

Robison was sixth at No. 2 singles, and No. 1 doubles Charlie Fahr/Vannucci were 0-2.