David Bergstrom serves up an ace in the Section 7A finals. Bergstrom has lost only one match this year.
Six members of the boys’ varsity tennis team traveled to Hibbing, Tuesday, May 24, to compete in the Section 7A Individual Tournament. Each team sends two singles players and two doubles teams to this tournament and the top two in each category, singles and doubles, advance to the state competition. Because of misty rain on Tuesday morning, the competition was moved to Virginia, where they have four indoor tennis courts, along with some nice outdoor courts.
Cook County had both of its singles players, Junior Captain David Bergstrom and eighth-grader Lars Scannell, advance through the first two rounds, and they faced each other Wednesday morning in the semi-finals. In this section tournament, Bergstrom was seeded No.1 and Scannell No. 4, in singles.
Bergstrom defeated senior Greg Elvik (Mora), 6-0, 6-0, in the first round, and junior Josh Adams (Pine City), 6-0, 6-0, in the second round. Scannell prevailed through two challenging matches, defeating sophomore Lyle Nyberg (Aitkin), 6-2, 7-5, in the first round, and senior Paul Knoll (Virginia), 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, in the second round.
Lars Scannell and David Bergstrom had to play against each other in the Section 7A finals to see who would go to state in tennis. Bergstrom, a junior, beat his younger teammate 6-2, 6-1 to advance, but the matches were closer than the score indicates. Scannell is just an eighth grader.
In the doubles competition, sophomore Justin Goldstein and eighthgrader Daniel Ahrendt won their first round match, defeating juniors Adam Stumne and Tim Broz (Pine City), 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Justin and Daniel had to face the top-seeded doubles team in the second round and lost to seniors Cody Mauston and John Morgan (Virginia), 6-0, 6-0.
The other CCHS doubles team was eighth-grader Jamie Wick and seventh grader Pete Summers. Jamie and Pete had to play the No.4 seeded team, seniors Mark Florey and Steve Aro (Eveleth-Gilbert), in the first round and gave them a tough match before losing, 6-0, 6-4.
Bergstrom and Scannell face off
Bergstrom and Scannell had to start the day on Wednesday competing against each other for a spot in the singles finals. Scannell always enjoys the challenge of playing against Bergstrom, who has been dominant this season against all of his opponents. Bergstrom quickly won the first game, but then Scannell started playing his best tennis of the season and Bergstrom started to feel the pressure of being the top seed in the section. He had beaten all of the top seeded players in the section earlier this season, but now he had to do it again to advance to the state tournament. The combination of Scannell’s excellent play and Bergstrom’s nerves made every game a battle. Bergstrom ended up defeating Scannell, 6-2, 6-1, but the score doesn’t indicate how competitive this match really was. There were a number of close games that could’ve gone either way.
Lars Scannell played at the No. 2 singles position for the Vikings this year. Lars had a great tournament and almost qualified for state this year.
Bergstrom advances
In the finals, Bergstrom had to take on the No.2 seeded player, junior Joey Kronzer, from Marshall High School. Bergstrom knew he had to play well to beat this opponent and the pressure he put on himself continued to affect his usually consistent play. David struggled throughout the match and his opponent took advantage of it, handing David his first loss of the season, 6-1, 6-3.
In the third place match, Scannell took on the No. 3 seeded player, junior Blair Seitz, from Virginia, and lost 6-1, 6-0. Scannell demonstrated in this tournament that he has a large amount of talent and has an opportunity to be a great player in the years to come.
Due to the way the section tournament is set up, Bergstrom had to play one more match to find out who would be declared the true second place finisher that would advance to the state tournament. Bergstrom had to take on Blair Seitz, another tough opponent whom he faced earlier in the season. After Bergstrom’s last match, he knew he had to relax and get his mind right so he could focus on the job at hand. Bergstrom was able to overcome some of the struggles he was dealing with earlier and slowly felt his game and confidence come back. He finished the match strong, defeating Seitz 6-4, 6-0 for second place and an opportunity to advance to the State Single A Individual Tennis Tournament, held June 9-10 in Minneapolis. Congratulations, David!
A great first season for Viking tennis
All of the individual CCHS players played well in their matches and impressed a number of observers at the tournament. They have continued to improve throughout the season as they gained more match-play experience. The team needs more players to field a full team (10) next year, but they have a great nucleus of players to build around.
This is a great way to end the first season of girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis at Cook County High School. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come and an opportunity for us to continue to grow the game of tennis in Cook County.
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