Westside Tennis team prepares for Metro Championship

The Westside boys tennis team competed and hosted the Westside invitational on Monday, Sept. 26. The tournament featured some of the top teams in the state and would be a good taste of what the Metro tournament could be like in October.

This invite had some ups and downs for the Warriors, as they couldn’t truly find their footing against their opponents, but there were some bright spots. The doubles duo of seniors JT Evans and Alex Kugler had some key moments in their matches as they were able to take two out of the three matches. They captured wins over Lincoln Southwest and Omaha Central with a dropped match to Lincoln Southeast. This duo showed promise, but still have some work to do when it comes to winning on a more consistent basis.

“I think being able to pick up on individual strengths and weaknesses and using them to strategize helped us pull off a couple of good wins in the Westside invitational,”  Evans said. “I think Alex and I are going to be a strong team coming into Metro as we continue to build each match as we play together.”

On the singles side of the invitational, Westside struggled a bit dropping some close matches, with the exception of AJ Shefsky. The Westside junior was able to defeat Millard West and Papio South on route to another great day on the court. The former state champion is the player to watch in Westside’s upcoming big tournaments. Overall the Warriors finished in the middle of the pack placing fifth out of ten teams, not a result they wanted, but one that leaves room for improvement.

After a solid test at the Westside invitational, the boys tennis team now has their focus on the Metro tournament coming up this week. This tournament will consist of many of the teams they faced in their last meet and it should be fun to see how well the teams and players adjusted. Some of the teams competing in this tourney are Millard North, Papio South and Creighton Prep all of which are teams that have handed the Warriors some trouble in the past. Westside will need some great play from both singles and doubles teams to pull out the win. One player that is looking to do big things is senior Lance Buscher.

“I’m doing a lot of hitting and I’m going to practice shots that I have hard times with, like slices and overheads,” Buscher said. “When I’m down I get into my head and my form changes, I have learned that no matter what, I need to trust myself and my shots.”

Westside will compete in the Metro tennis tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at the Koch Tennis Center at Tranquility Park. The Metro finals are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 6.