Green Bay Notre Dame seeded fifth, Neenah seeded sixth for WIAA Division 1 state team tennis tournament
The 28th Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association boys state team tennis tournament is Friday and Saturday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison.
Play begins at 3:30 p.m. Friday with Division 1 quarterfinals and will resume with Division 1 and Division 2 semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday. The championship matches in both divisions will begin following the semifinals based on court availability.
Tickets are $9 per day plus online fees and are available on the WIAA website.
Green Bay Notre Dame and Neenah have qualified in Division 1. Here’s a look at those teams.
Notre Dame (20-7)
The Tritons are the No. 5 seed and will play No. 4 seed Eau Claire Memorial (18-4) in the quarterfinals. The Tritons are making their 11th trip to team state and won the Division 2 title in 2012 and 2019.
Junior Matt Gugluizza and freshman Alex Thomas played in singles for the Tritons at last week’s individual state tournament. Gugluizza won his first-round match before losing to No. 3 seed Ethan Bo of Middleton. Thomas lost in the first round.
Notre Dame also had two doubles teams play last weekend — junior Aidan Burich and senior Mason Olson, who were the No. 16 seed, and juniors Pablo Cuene and Zeb Zifferblatt.
Burich and Olson won one match, while Cuene and Zifferblatt lost in the first round.
Eau Claire Memorial has the most state appearances with 25 but is seeking its first title. The Old Abes were runners-up in 2014.
Memorial had two singles players — junior Evan Birkholz and senior Bennett Kohlhepp — play last weekend. Birkholz won a match and Kohlhepp lost in the first round.
The Old Abes also had three doubles teams competing. Junior Gavin Sorensen and senior Seth Roosevelt, the No. 9 seed, won two matches. Senior Jackson Sailing and junior Graham Tomkovick won one match, while seniors Ben Roberts and Jack Willems lost their opening match.
Neenah (13-5)
The Rockets are the No. 6 seed and will play No. 3 seed Brookfield Central (18-4) in the quarterfinals. The Rockets have won 10 team titles, including five in a row from 1991 to 1995. Since the dual match format was adopted in 1995, Neenah has the second-most state appearances with 20. Neenah advanced to the championship match last year before losing to Brookfield East 7-0.
Senior David Murphy and sophomore Carl Hein competed in singles for the Rockets at the individual state tournament last weekend. Both lost their first-round matches.
Seniors Satchel Moss and Ben Kotchen were the 11th seed in doubles and won three matches. They reached the quarterfinals, including a victory over Michael Li and Sridhar Thiru of Brookfield Central.
Junior Brady Hildreth and sophomore Andrew Werner lost in the first round.
Brookfield Central is making its 15th state appearance but first since 2016.
Junior Surya Arvind was the fifth seed for the Lancers at the individual state tournament. He won two matches and advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Oscar Corwin of Brookfield East.
The Lancers had two other singles players in action last weekend, freshman Andrey Semin and sophomore Jacob Smith. Semin, the No. 13 seed, won two matches and Smith lost in the first round.
In addition to Li and Thiru, the Lancers also had junior Aaditya Tiwari and senior Gabe Weitzer in action as the No. 7 seed. They finished in sixth place and beat Moss and Kotchen in the consolation bracket.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Green Bay Notre Dame, Neenah will compete in WIAA state team tennis
