Blaze Netters Come Up Short Against Wildcats

In a match delayed a day on account of rain, the Burnsville boys tennis team came up on the wrong side of a 6-1 decision at South Suburban Conference front-runner Eagan Friday evening.

The loss drops the Blaze to 3-5 overall and 3-3 in circuit play.

"There were a lot of matches that we could have won," Blaze coach Ben Stapp said. "Hand it to Eagan though, they beat us fair and square."

Nazhone Wilkins started off the gloomy afternoon on the right foot with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Brady Radermacher at No. 1 singles.

From there, however, it was all Wildcats as the hosts swept the remainder of the singles and doubles matchups.

The afternoon could have been a lot closer, as it turned in Eagan's favor with three-set defeats of Blaze duos Zach Biggar/Caleb Robb and Jack Thomford/Ed Dubanoski at No. 1 and 3 doubles, respectively, and a second-set tiebreaker Eagan victory over Nick Lesser at No. 3 singles.

"We battled all the way though, a few matches just didn't go our way," Stapp said. 

It's been that kind of season thus far, according to the coach, with Burnsville losing several seemingly lopsided matches on a few turns of fate.

"I haven't found a team this season that I don't think we can't play with," he said. "A lot of our losses look worse than they are and my job now is to keep this team up.

"I know we can play with anyone. Hopefully, we can learn from matches like today, have fun and get some wins because dealing with the emotions from all this losing is tough on the team," Stapp said. 

With April now having drawn to a close, the Burnsville netters open May with back-to-back home matches against conference foe Eastview on Tuesday and Lake Conference power Edina on Wednesday. Both contests are set to start at 3:30 p.m.