TENNIS TANK

TENNIS TANK

Big boys make noise

          As the final ball was hit, sophomore Tate Larsen and freshman Hank Lucas had just been defeated 4-6, 6-4, 2-6. Both of them were fuming with anger after their one big weakness as a doubles team was exposed, their mobility, thus ending their season. 

          The two breezed through their first round district match against Ryan Woolsoacraft and Tucker Rowe of Council Bluffs TJ 0 and 0. The win matched them with the #4 seed, Des Moines East’s duo of sophomore William Chhim and junior Kade Dolphin. Chhim hit a hard forehand that moved the two all over the court which took a big toll on them in the third set.

          A team with two of the more bulky tennis players in the state did not seem like a recipe for success, but more like a unlikely duo. They became known as Tank when coach Jerry Kinder accidently blended their first names. 

          Larsen and Lucas began playing together at the Hyperion Field Club Tennis Academy since from they were young. Tennis pro Tim Brickley remembered them. “Hank cracked me up how he always wanted to play the next drill and not sit on the benches, and Tate was the opposite, he said, “laying on the floor under the benches.”

          A key in the cog was Lucas’ older brother and two-time state qualifier graduate Jack Lucas. “It helped out that Jack would help us with our shots and other stuff,” Larsen said. 

          What worked was Lucas’ down the line forehands past net players and his ability to lob. This set up Larsen at the net. 

          They started the year playing #4 doubles, then moved to #3, winning their first four matches at the new position. Their season record was 15-5, the last match being a heartbreaker in team substate. Cam Johnson and Raife Axne on the tension-filled match 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 to take the meet 4-5, sending them to team state.

          “Probably our best moment as a team was the (Dennis Hoefle) Ankeny Invite,” Lucas said. “We weren’t expected to win the tournament but we went out there and shocked a lot of people.” Even the coach, Leslie Shipp, left at the beginning of the #3 doubles match to coach a JV meet. 

          After surviving a first round, three-set scare to Roosevelt’s Issac Dotson and Gavin Copeland, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 that saw them up 4-3 in the second set, beat Ankeny second round to put them in the championship match. They droppedthe first set to Valley’s Grant Songer and Nate Miller 3-6, then battled to win 7-6, 10-7. It was only the 10th time in school history that a Johnston team won a championship in the tournament.

          Not only did they win the Ankeny Invite, but they nearly won the Johnston Invite as well. They pulled out two close macthes 6-5 to both Pella and Norwalk. They lost to Waukee’s Wyatt Karras and Ben Lavastida 5-6, just falling short of winning both tournaments. 

        Yet even in second, the proved that they could hang with about  anybody if they played how they knew they could. “If we outsmart them like we usually do, and smash the ball over the net and don’t get run all over, we will win a lot,” Larsen said.