Jaguars tennis off to impressive start

Jefferson is dominant with a 7-1 record in 2024

Jefferson boys tennis closed out April with another dominant performance on April 30 this time handing Chaska a 6-1 defeat in Metro West Conference action.

The Jaguars fell to 7-1 after a 4-3 loss to Orono on April 25 to mark a run of three matches in three days.

Jefferson rebounded winning the next four matches in five days starting with a 6-1 result against Chaska on April 30 followed by a 5-2 win over Breck on May 1. The Jaguars swept away St. Louis Park and New Prague 7-0, respectively, on May 2-3 for two more Metro West Conference wins.

The win over Chaska featured two-set sweeps in three of four singles matches including Stuart Konezny downing Chaska’s Josh Mueller in the No. 1 spot 6-1, 6-0. Micah Wang and Wellstone Jones won at third and fourth singles. Chaska’s Evan Atkinson defeated Bjorn Sevig-Fajardo 6-1, 6-4 at No. 2 singles.

The Jaguars swept the three doubles matches with Nick Elfstrum and Peyton Sheffert winning at No. 1 6-1, 6-2; Troy Cavanah and Gus Campbell won at No. 2 6-1, 6-2 and the Jags third-doubles combo of Andres Linden and Dylan Meek shutout the Hawks pair 6-0, 6-0.

The previous week ended with a tough loss to Orono 4-3 on April 25 as Orono swept the four singles matches and Jefferson dominated the doubles side of the Metro West Conference match.

Konezny lost against Orono’s Hugh Perrill 6-3, 6-4 in the top singles spot. Sevig-Fajardo and Wang came up short at second and third singles each losing 6-0, 6-0. Campbell lost at No. 4 6-1, 6-1.

In doubles action, Elfstrum and Sheffert won at No. 1 6-1, 6-0; Cavanah and Meek defeated Orono’s Billy Foster and Henry Raiche 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles; Jones and Linden held down the No. 3 doubles match against Orono’s Kyle Lewis and Chris Byrnes 6-2, 6-1.

Jefferson downed Holy Angels at Valley View Park 6-1 one day earlier.

The Jags took three-of-fours singles matches and swept the doubles matches. At No. 1 singles it was Konezny over AHA’s Oliver Heitzman 6-2, 6-1; Sevig-Fajardo defeated Avi Kasargod 6-2, 6-3 and at fourth singles, Jones downed AHA’s Theo Reid 6-3, 6-2.

The Stars’ Cici Xie beat Linden in third singles 6-3, 6-3.

In doubles matches it was Elfstrum and Sheffert over AHA’s Landon Stenger and Henry Heitzman 6-0, 6-0; No. 2 doubles went to Wang and Meek over AHA’s Blake Nixon and Danny Kelly 6-2, 6-1 and at third doubles Campell and Nate Cavanah defeated AHA’s Declan Andresen and Will Reinbold 6-1, 6-3.

Jefferson swept Waconia 7-0 on April 23 with Linden’s win over Waconia’s Noah Rowe at No. 3 singles the closest match of the day. Linden won the opening set 6-4 before Rowe won 6-7 (5) to force a tiebreaker which went to Linden 10-2.

Konezny beat Waconia’s Carben Dock 6-1, 6-0 and Sevig-Fajardo beat Waconia’s Keagan Vandergon 6-4, 6-4 at the top two singles spots. Jones downed Waconia’s Jaxon James 6-0, 6-2 at fourth singles.

The three Jefferson doubles teams swept their respective matches in straight sets including No. 1 doubles Elfstrum/Sheffert, No. 2 Wang/Campbell and No. 3 Troy Cavanah and Nate Cavanah.

Of the opening six straight wins, Jefferson only dropped three total matches out of the 18 combined matches.

The Jaguars opened the season with consecutive 70- wins over Minnehaha Academy and Benilde-St. Margaret’s (April 10-11) before 6-1 wins over Eastview (April 12) and Lakeville South (April 15), respectively.

Holy Angels

Holy Angels returned to form with a pair of Tri-Metro Conference wins last week including its closest victory of the spring, a 4-3 win over St. Anthony Village on April 30 after a 7-0 shutout of Columbia Heights on April 25.

Stars coach Steve Werle said the squad is holding its own despite graduating six seniors off the 2023 squad with seven underclassmen now among the leaders on the team.

Werle said the group works hard every day in practice or a match to get better and the result is highly competitive tennis matches.

“Most importantly, the players are exhibiting excellent sportsmanship and tremendous commitment to success as a team,” Werle said as he felt fortunate to pull out victories against St. Anthony Village and DeLaSalle.

“Great to see competitive tennis combined with good, old-fashioned grit and classy play. It’s what makes high school tennis so much fun,” he said.

The narrow win over SAV saw the Stars sweep the three doubles matches including Andresen and Stenger pulling out a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 1; Blake Nixon and Kelly won a third-set match in the second doubles match 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 and Henry Heitzman and Will Reinbold won at third doubles 6-2, 6-2.

Xie won the lone singles team point coming in the No. 3 match against Christy Gunnar 6-0, 6-0.

Theo Reid pushed his fourth singles match against Asher Suhr but ultimately fell in a third set, 7-6 (9), 3-6, 7-5.

SAV’s Hans Otte downed Oliver Heitzman at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-3 and Kasargod fell against Ayan Glaser at No. 2 6-0, 6-3.

The Stars dominated Columbia Heights by not conceding a single game as each match went 6-0, 6-0 with Oliver Heitzman, Kasargod, Xie and Reid representing the team in 1-4.

At No. 1 singles, Stener and Henry Heitzman needed a tiebreaker to get past CH’s Ji Kai Ni and Ahmed Mohamud 7-6 (2), 2-6, 10-5.

The 6-1 loss to Jefferson came two days after Minneapolis Southwest topped the Stars 5-2.

The Lakers swept the four singles matches as the Stars took 2-of-3 doubles matches including Andersen and Stenger at the No. 1 spot beating Erickson Moen and Oliver Galt 4-6, 6-2, 10-3.

Xie and Kelly partnered at second doubles and beat SW’s Joe Podratz and Abe Anderson 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Holy Angels emerged with a 4-3 win over DeLaSalle on April 18 at Valley View Park.

Reid picked up the lone singles team point, winning at No. 4 against Aidric Axvig 6-1, 7-6 (4). The Stars swept at doubles with Andresen and Stenger winning at No. 1 6-1, 6-1; Xie and Kelly won at No. 2 6-0, 6-0 and Nixon and Reinbold won at No. 3 6-1, 6-2.