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Monday, November 3, 2008
Keep an eye on the 'Stangs
St. Paul, MN
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By: Tom Carothers
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Photo(s) By: Tom Carothers
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“We had great numbers come out for this year’s team, there were 99 girls in all,” Cartwright said. “We only had two seniors on this year’s varsity team.”
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It’s really something when a 13-3 regular season could even be fathomed as a rebuilding year, but that’s where the Mounds View girls tennis team is at.
“It’s been a bit of an up-and-down season,” Mike Cartwright, in his 17th season at the helm of the Mustangs program, admitted.
While Mounds View is not exactly a sleeping giant, the team was not quite imposing its will on a majority of the metro tennis community the way it had in many previous seasons.
“We were a very young squad this season and trying out a lot of players in new positions,” Cartwright said. “There is a lot of talent on this team but it was a matter of working on consistency.”
The Mustangs sprung from the gate in fine form, winning their first five matches. However, a 7-0 loss to Edina — the team that Mounds View finished second to in last year’s Class AA state tournament — halted the victory streak.
While Mounds View bounced back to peel off another streak of victories, a 4-3 loss to Forest Lake on Sept. 23 would prove historic as it spelled the end of the Mustangs’ dominance in its own conference.
“This was the first year we did not win the Suburban East Conference,” Cartwright said. For the entire decade, Mounds View had finished atop the SEC, a circuit that came into being in 2001. By means of the late-season defeat, the Mustangs were wrapping up the regular season without their league’s championship trophy for the first time.
That loss, however, would prove to be Mounds View’s last until state.
While the Mustangs did not earn the top seed in their Section 5AA bracket — that honor went to Centennial — Cartwright’s club would claim the postseason prize after defeating Columbia Heights, Anoka, Maple Grove and the Cougars to win their second-straight 5AA crown.
“We’ve got a great team from a wonderful tennis community that doesn’t give up,” Cartwright said.
While Mounds View may not challenge Edina for the Class AA team title again this season, there are many reasons to be optimistic for the future of Mounds View tennis.
“We had great numbers come out for this year’s team, there were 99 girls in all,” Cartwright said. “We only had two seniors on this year’s varsity team.”
Both seniors, Jodi VanDeRiet and Kristin Thompson, played as a team in the postseason individual tournament, as well as doing their part for the Mustangs at state in late October.
The strength of the team lies in its copious number of talented youth, as a pair of freshmen play integral parts on the club as a trio of eighth-graders lay in wait.
Mustangs freshman Tacy Lay joined junior Kelly Humphrey as the Mustangs’ top doubles team for the individual postseason tournament. During the regular season, Lay was 17-3 as Mounds View’s No. 2 singles player, while Humphrey joined Thompson to compose the team’s top doubles tandem.
“Tacy had a very solid season, she’s such a young player but shows a lot of confidence on the court,” Cartwright said. “Kristin and Kelly were our most reliable doubles team. They clicked right from the beginning of the season and just got better and better as the season went on.”
In 2007, Lay teamed with fellow freshman — then eighth-grader — Melanie Yates to finish second at state as an individual doubles team last season. This season, Yates has been stellar as the Mustangs No. 1 singles player, amassing an 18-2 record through the sectional tournament.
“She had a great season,” Cartwright said. “She always works very hard and has great skills. She’s very tenacious.”
Almost an elder statesman on the 2008 Mustangs was sophomore Laurel Krebsbach. The team’s No. 3 singles player held the best record on the team through sectionals after she put together a 19-1 mark heading into state.
“Laurel is such a determined player,” Cartwright said.” She absolutely refuses to lose.”
The team is powerful at the top, but Mounds View’s true strength has always been in its depth. As evidenced by the sheer number of girls trying out for the squad, what’s been true in the past remains so today.
“We have a number of very talented players including three eighth-graders. They were not able to compete individually at sections because we are only allowed two entrants in each the singles and doubles tournaments,” Cartwright said.
Those three eighth-graders — Lauren McGregor, Katie Meinen and Paige Thayer —joined juniors Kelsey Rice and Rachel Kramlinger as well as sophomore Maggie Morris as the Mustangs closed out October — and their season — at the state tournament.
While the team didn’t figure in the championship proceedings, Mounds View looks to next year with boundless optimism and hopes to once again return to challenge Edina for all the marbles.
“We want to play well and play hard,” Cartwright said. “We can’t control how other teams play, but we can control how we play.”
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