Woodbury boys tennis: Royals top Park, White Bear Lake

Derek Otto isn’t interested in padding the schedule.

To wit: the Woodbury boys tennis coach scheduled his young Royals to appear in Saturday’s Old Abe Great 8 tournament in Eau Clare, Wis. The meet featured some of the top teams in Minnesota, including No. 3-ranked Wayzata.

The Royals placed fourth of eight teams in the Old Abe tournament, but Otto said the appearance wasn’t about showing his players the easy path.

“While it certainly doesn’t help our record, I know that playing the tough competition we do out of conference will help us reach our greatest long-term potential and prepare us well for our end of the year tournaments,” he said.

The tournament, held Saturday, saw big wins by Woodbury over Eau Claire North (7-0) and Wasau (Wis.) East (5-2). The Royals finished second in their pool, giving them a chance to play for third place, but lost 7-0 to Hopkins.

The tournament capped a busy week on the court for the Royals, who competed against a total of seven teams in six days.

Woodbury’s record now stands at 7-8 overall and 4-3 in the Suburban East Conference with just three matches left on the schedule before the section tournament begins.

The Royals lost 6-1 Wednesday to Mounds View, beat White Bear Lake 4-3 on May 1 and topped Park 5-2 on April 30.

Last week’s action included another strong week at No. 1 singles, where junior Matt Shubert went 2-1. He topped opponents from Mounds View and Park and fell in three sets to White Bear Lake’s Quinn Combs.

“It was a great match to watch between two athletic players with big serves playing aggressive tennis at a high level,” Otto said of the White Bear Lake match.

Woodbury now looks to close out the regular season with games this week Stillwater (played Tuesday after the Bulletin went to press), Roseville and Eagan – the seventh-ranked team in Minnesota and possible opponent in the Section 3AA tournament.

Section action runs May 15-23 with the team tournament in Lakeville. Individual section competition will be May 25-30.

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