Dearing Delivers: Junior Clinches Team Conference Title for Excelsior Tennis

The end of the school year is here, and with that comes the end-of-year tournaments for the spring sports. First up in the flurry of tournaments was the Men’s Tennis team, which had conference, individual district, and team district tournaments all in the span of a week.

The week began with the conference tournament on May 1. The Tigers (3-8) first match of the day was against Winnetonka (1-8). The conference tournament started out red hot for the Tigers, coming away with a dominating 7-2 win. The next match was against the rival Kearney Bulldogs.

With the conference championship on the line, this was a back-and-forth battle. In the last singles match of the day, junior Jack Dearing had the opportunity to clinch the win and the conference championship. After an impressive performance, Dearing secured the match win and a conference championship for Excelsior! “It felt great to accomplish something after working to improve so much throughout the year.” Dearing said.

This was the school’s first suburban conference championship since returning to the esteemed conference in 2022.

The next event of the week was individual districts, which can qualify an individual for the state tournament. Players must place in the top two of this tournament to qualify for the next round. After an unfortunate draw, Austin Collins, Excelsior’s top tennis player, had to play the number-one ranked player in the district in the second round. This is someone who has qualified for the state tournament before and succeeded in it. Unfortunately, Collins lost this match, sending him to the 3rd place match, where he faced fellow Tiger Theo Struhmann. Collins won this match, clinching third place, and Struhmann placed fourth. While both young men barely missed the cut to advance into the next round, having two players place in the top 4 of districts is a phenomenal accomplishment.

The season’s final event was the team class 1 district 14 event. In this event, they played St. Michael the Archangel (6-7). Unfortunately, in a close game, the Tigers lost 3-5, ending their season. It was an unfortunate end to their season, but winning the conference with an extremely young team is a terrific accomplishment and gives the team hope as they head into next year.

District play for spring sports continues next week with the baseball team’s district tournament, with more to come.