Three quarterfinal, one semifinal appearance spurs Thresher tennis to successful ITA Regional weekend
Bucek and Casique make the singles quarterfinal, while Quercia and Kollar make the doubles quarterfinal, with Bucek and Cech in the doubles semifinal.
SALINA — On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday the Thresher tennis teams went to the annual ITA regional tournament where teams all across the region come to play in one singles draw and one doubles draw for both men and women that decides who takes a trip to the national tournament.
Bethel had some standouts that labeled them one of the top teams in the tournament by the final day.
On the women’s side, the stand-alone athlete freshman Daniela Casique made it all the way to the quarterfinals in her first matches of the season before falling to Jensen of Morningside University, 6-4 6-2, ending her ITA run as only a freshman.
“It was a great experience,” said Casique. “I was able to see the level in the region and learned a lot about fighting and giving 100% in all of the matches. I also appreciate my team and cheering them on throughout the weekend as well.”
On the men’s side, senior Milan Bucek from Pelhrimov, Czech Republic made it to the quarterfinals as well before falling to Beltran of McPherson (7-6, 1-6, 4-10) in a third-set super tiebreaker. Ending Bethel’s singles performances for the weekend.
“Since it was my last tournament, my ultimate goal was to get to the finals,” said Bucek. “What I had to do was just get through the first two rounds. Since I was the 5th seed, it felt like I had something to prove. I wanted to go to nationals really bad; it didn’t matter if it was singles or doubles.
“Overall, it was a good tournament and was a combination of both good and disappointing. There are much better players in the tournament and I was happy with my performance even if it means that those better players beat me at my best.”
In doubles, Bucek along with Michael Cech, senior from Modlany, Czech Republic performed well placing themselves in a semifinals match on day 3 with a chance to reach the finals and potentially a nationals run. Unfortunately, the Threshers couldn’t capitalize on a 7-6 comeback after being down 7-4 and fell to the number one William Woods team, 8-6.
“I was extremely proud of how all of our players battled this weekend,” head coach Gabe Johnson said. “It's a loaded draw and a lot of great teams with great players and you know every match is gonna be a fight. I think we showed up ready to compete. Milan and Daniela both made runs [to the quarterfinals] and in those matches competed at a really high level and came up short.
“Michael and Milan battling through injuries (Michael’s tennis elbow) and wear-and-tear on their bodies (Milan could barely walk due to overworking muscles) made it all the way to the semifinals and was a great run for the them and they upset one of the best doubles team in the country to get their and lose a close match there to the team that ends up winning the championship.
“I was very proud of Jonah [Bergeron] and Rodrigo [Sanchez] finishing at the finals of the consolation bracket. We had Daniela and Halle [Krehbiel] winning the consolation doubles and people just showed up and I think across the board we fought hard. I feel really great coming out of the weekend, a lot of positive takeaways to wrap up the fall season.”
The Threshers will start back up in the spring after hitting the weight room, working on those negatives and becoming better for a chance at the conference championship and a hopeful aspiration of team nationals.