Boys tennis: East's Lied pleased with Spartans season

Even though state team tennis could have gone a little better, Brookfield East boys tennis coach Linda Lied was pleased with the season.

"All and all it was a great season," the veteran coach said. "As for boys state the results were a little under what I expected."

East beat Green Bay Preble (6-1), but got swept by Marquette, a team they lost to twice (6-1, 5-2).

"I thought we really matched up well with Marquette," Lied said. "During the season we had beaten them in the following positions - No. 1 singles, No. 1 doubles, No. 2 singles and No. 4 singles - never on the same match however.

"We also had close matches with them at No. 2 doubles and No. 3 singles, so I really believed if everyone played well we could win four matches. But unfortunately we came out a little tight and Marquette got up on every court. Our third doubles brought their match into a third set and the one doubles had three-plus set points, but couldn't get it done. Without winning one doubles court I don't think the singles players had much confidence that they could win all the courts.

"Marquette was just a little bit better than we were this year and they played well and deserved to win the state title."

The Spartans will be losing Ben Klein, who was named MVP, to graduation. He will play tennis at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. During his four years on the varsity team he has been a solid contributor.

Michael Amato is also graduating and he will attend UW-Madison. He was on the varsity team for three years where he played fourth singles every year.

"As I have said before, he owned that spot," Lied said.

The remaining senior was Billy Dietz, who played his first year on varsity.

"He did a great job at third doubles," Lied said. "All these players will be hard to replace and will be missed."

The Spartans finished second in the conference team tournament behind Marquette, but they won two championships - sophomore Felix Corwin beat Damon Niquet of Marquette for the No. 1 singles spot and the first doubles team of Klein and Ben Stewart beat MUHS' CJ Armbrust and Connor Muth for the championship. The East players were named the conference Players of the Year.

Another huge accomplishment was taking first place in the Sectional Tournament, scoring 54 points which is almost the perfect score. The only position East did finish first was at No. 3 singles. This win earned the team a berth to the state team tournament, plus the No. 1 and 2 singles and No. 1 and 2 doubles teams also qualified for the individual State Tournament.

"At the individual tournament we had great success with Felix finishing second and the No. 1 doubles team finishing second, too."