Woodbury boys tennis: Royals earn third seed

As the weather warmed up, so did the Woodbury boys tennis team.

Woodbury earned three big wins last week — two in the Suburban East Conference — and captured the No. 3 seed in the 14-team Section 3AA tournament, which will take place at various locations from May 17 to 25. Eagan was awarded the section’s second seed. Tenth-ranked Eastview is the top seed in Section 3AA.

However, Woodbury head coach Derek Otto believes nobody in the section is unbeatable for the Royals.

“We definitely have a shot,” Otto said. “There is nobody that is overwhelmingly better than us by any means. We will absolutely be competitive against anyone we play in our section.”

Last week the Royals beat SEC foe Stillwater 4-3 on Tuesday, May 10, Section 3AA foe St. Thomas Academy 5-2 on Wednesday, May 11, and Roseville 5-2, on Monday, May 16 to cap regular-season play with an 11-5 overall record and a 5-2 conference mark.

“Those were very solid wins for us,” Otto said. “The win over St. Thomas was very important for us in the section seeding. St. Thomas had gone undefeated against everyone seeded below it, so by beating St. Thomas there was no question we should be seeded third.”

In the regular-season win over Roseville, Woodbury earned three singles wins and two doubles wins to top the Raiders. In singles matches, Jake Sajevic won at No. 2 singles, Jason Lu won at third singles and Josh Rebholz won at fourth singles. In doubles play, Ben Wortmann and Joey Shubert rolled at second doubles and Jan Groth and Zach Moore finished the season undefeated at third doubles.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Otto said. “Last year Groth and Moore only lost a couple matches as well. I’m excited to see what they can bring to the table for us in the section tournament. It’s hard to imagine they won’t continue to get us those wins we need.”

The win over Roseville exemplified the depth the Royals have from top to bottom. On the year, Woodbury was 28-13 at second through fourth singles combined and 25-6 between second and third doubles overall.

In all, Woodbury was 38-25 in singles play and 32-14 in doubles matches.

“The doubles have really come on strong and developed well,” Otto said. “It was definitely nice having someone like Jason Brooks last year who would pretty much guarantee us a win over almost anybody at first singles, but we are a much stronger team this year as a team of 10 and have more depth and potential this season because of that and the development of the players this year.”

Woodbury opened section play against 14th seed Park on Tuesday, May 17, after the Bulletin went to press. A win would pit the Royals against either sixth seed Bloomington Jefferson or 11th seed East Ridge on Thursday, May 19, at Woodbury.

Tags: sports, tennis, woodbury, royals, prep, updates