Boys tennis: Youth being served by Bulldogs

OTTUMWA — Winning seasons are nothing new for the Ottumwa High School boys tennis team.

In fact, the Bulldogs have finished three of the last four seasons with winning dual records.

The fact that Ottumwa has a chance to produce a winning dual season this year, however, is something of a surprise.

"I don't think we even expected that would be a possibility when the season began," Ottumwa head boys tennis coach Mark Hanson said. "We didn't even talk about winning and losing matches this year. We just talked about getting better."

The Bulldogs have four seniors that are part of the starting varsity line-up despite having never played organized tennis before this season. Despite that lack of inexperience, Ottumwa has brought home a tournament title from Burlington and has won all four Iowa Alliance Conference south division duals including three straight wins last week, not only putting the Bulldogs in line to produce a winning season but also a conference championship.

Ottumwa completed a perfect week last Thursday with an 11-0 win over Des Moines Hoover at Dan Staggs Family Courts. The Bulldogs won 132 of 157 games played against the Huskies, sweeping through all six singles matches and five doubles matches during the dual to remain tied at the top of the conference standings with Des Moines Roosevelt setting up an Iowa Alliance Conference south championship dual between the teams in Ottumwa on May 1.

"We just wanted to get these guys involved in a sport that they could enjoy for the rest of their lives," Hanson said. "Little did I know that we could start being competitive in meets. This is an added bonus for us. We're trying as hard as we can to win as many matches as we can, but our emphasis is still on getting better every day."

Marcus Storto, Maverick Rath and Grady Zuithoff each came within a game of completing a pair of straight-set sweeps in singles play against Hoover. Storto teamed with Carter Burton to earn a 6-1, 6-0 win in the top doubles match in a dominant showing between the first-year partners.

"I've been playing tennis for a quite awhile, but this is my first year as part of the tennis program," Burton said. "I talked with a couple of guys about joining the team just so we'd have enough players to compete. I didn't think we'd be as good as we are, but all of us have gotten better individually. We're a solid team. I didn't expect that at all."

Before Ottumwa's showdown with Roosevelt for the conference title on Friday, the Bulldogs will face two tough teams this week. After traveling to Ankeny on Monday, Ottumwa will host Southeast Conference frontrunner Mount Pleasant on Tuesday afternoon starting at 4 p.m.

"Coach Hanson also tells us to just keep the ball in play, make the other guys tired and just outplay them," Burton said. "So far, it seems to be working pretty well."