SPIRIT LAKE - The talented Cherokee Braves tennis team, coming off of two disappointing one-match losses to Le Mars and Spencer, righted the ship here April 21st with a convincing 7-2 victory over Spirit Lake Park in cold, windy, damp weather conditions.

Cherokee's Alex Struck follows through on a serve in recent Lakes Conference tennis action in Cherokee. Photo by Paul Struck [Click to enlarge]

The Braves swept the three doubles matches and claimed four of six singles matches for the Lakes Conference win to push their season record to 4-2.

In varsity singles for Cherokee, Cole Egger beat Scott Maudlin 10-6 at number one, Kyle Ruehle beat Mason Berquist 10-7 at two, Cole Renken lost 10-8 to Sam Sieh at three, Tom Wilson beat Brady Hamelink 10-1 at four, Daniel Feser lost 10-5 to Blake Kliegl at five, and Nick Parker beat Mitch O'Neil 10-1 at six.

In doubles action, Egger and Ruehle beat Maudlin and Berquist 10-5 at number one, Renken and Parker beat Sieh and Kliegl 10-8 at two, and Wilson and Feser beat Harmelink and O'Neil 10-1 at three.

Cherokee swept all nine matches in JV action.

In JV singles for Cherokee, Alex Struck won 8-3 at number one, Jordan Ogren won 8-6 at two, John Bieber won 8-2 at three, Daniel Enderlin won 8-3 at four, Jacob Lewis won 8-0 at five, and Daniel Rodgers won 8-0 at six. In an extra JV match, Alex Allbaugh won 9-8 on a 7-4 tie-breaker for the Young Braves.

"Egger was masterful in his win over a solid opponent," said Cherokee coach Dave Zelle. "He showed great poise in dropping a couple of consecutive games in the middle of the match to slip behind 5-6. Cole then took five straight games for the win.

"The biggest story of the night was probably Nick and Cole (Renken) executing a feisty and spirited comeback to eranse a 1-7 deficiti and take a 10-8 win at #2 doubles.

"I've been very pleased with how our players have handled the extremely adverse weather conditions under which we have played many of our meets. It shows a maturing mental attitude about how to handle situations on the court."