Section Draws

Earlier this week, the draws, or tournament barckets, for the team and individual section tournaments came out. On Tuesday, all of the coaches in the section met and argued their cases for a higher seed. When all was said and done, the seeds were as follows:

1. Hopkins
2. Wayzata
3. Edina
4. Minneapolis South
5. Benilde, St. Margaret's
6. Robbinsdale Armstrong
7. St. Louis Park
8. Minneapolis Southwest
9. Holy Angels
10. Richfield
11. Robbinsdale Cooper
12. Minneapolis Roosevelt
13. Minneapolis Henry

The draw can be viewed here: http://mshsl.org/mshsl/showbrackets.asp?tournid=395&bracket=5825

We will play Holy Angels on Monday, and if we win, we will likely have a rematch against South. Since we are the highest seed, all of our matches will be at home if we continue to advance. Although the top four seeds in the section are arguably four of the top seven teams in the state, only one of us can advance to the state tournament.

Now, individuals.

Although the individuals portion of the tennis season is fun, I believe that it can be, and usually is, a negative distraction from the team aspect of high school tennis. Individuals works as follows: each team in the section chooses two singles players and two doubles teams to compete in the section tournament. This is completely separate from the team aspect. Two singles players and two doubles teams qualify for the state tournament from each section.

After winning the individual doubles portion of the state tournament last year, Ryan is playing singles this year, and he is the top seed in our section and receives a first-round bye. Andy Harris is also playing singles, and he's got a tough draw, he will have to play Wayzata's top player, the #3 seed, Dustin Britton in his second round match.

Manfred and I decided to team up and play doubles together, and we were given the #2 seed, and we've also got a first-round bye. Brandon and Rust are the #8 seed. Coach Novak said they got a raw deal since we were seeded highly and they must be on the opposite side of the draw than us.

The full singles draw can be seen here: http://mshsl.org/mshsl/showbrackets.asp?tournid=395&bracket=5826
Doubles: http://mshsl.org/mshsl/showbrackets.asp?tournid=395&bracket=5827

We've got Holy Angels on Monday at home. That's when the real season starts.

Until then,
Michael