In an exciting 5-2 win, the Bears swatted away the Hornets for one final time this season.  A singles line up of Barker, Mairs, S. Chepuri and Carlson followed up with dubs of Hall/R. Chepuri, Hemphill/Peterson and Harle/T. Parr.  Jay, Zhang, Shen, Prince and Mohuiddin all cheered loudly from the bleachers today.  With 1-3 singles, 1 dubs and 3 dubs all up a set things looked pretty good.  2 dubs and Carlson were hanging in there but couldn’t quite get over the hump and dropped their first sets. 

3rd dubs, with a head of steam started rolling first. Harle, not wanting to be the final and deciding match like the previous Hornet outing, teamed with T. Parr to finish strong and be first off for a 1-0 lead.  Mairs had a strong first set against the promising 7th grader Oscar Janzen.   Janzen thought he had sensed a crack in the armor as he went up 5-4 in the second set before Mairs reeled off 12 straight points to take the second set 7-5 and match.  Bears up 2-0.  In the meantime, Carlson fought hard, but couldn’t keep up with his opponent, and Edina secured their first point. Match 2-1 Bears.

S. Chepuri was battling the steady Otto Schreiner and once he settled into a groove, jumped out to a 5-2 second set lead, before closing out the set and giving the Bears their 3rd point.  Match 3-1 Bears.  Not long thereafter, 2 dubs mounted a good comeback in the second set before falling 7-5, giving Edina their 2nd point.  Match 3-2 Bears.

Jack Barker was playing an animated John Webb and true to form, kept his cool and closed out the match in straight sets, clinching the win for the Bears.  4-2.  Meanwhile, 1st dubs was down 5-4 in the second set when team Hall/R. Chepuri found a little extra gas, putting a bit more zip on their shots and with an extra spring in their step they derailed a solid team in Reger and Tuttle to ice the win 5-2.

Congratulations to our Blake Bears. They fought hard today and all season.  

Next up Barker and Mairs take to the Baseline courts tomorrow for individual singles section play and dubs of Hall/R. Chepuri and S. Chepuri/Peterson line up in the doubles draw.  

Other teams in the state tournament, seeding will be this weekend:

1AA – Rochester Century (4-3 winners over Rochester Mayo)

2AA- Orono (4-3 winners over Minnetonka)

3AA –Eastview (5-2 winners over East Ridge)

4AA- Mounds View (7-0 winners over White Bear Lake)

5AA –Wayzata (7-0 winners over Maple Grove)

6AA – Blake Bears

7AA –Undecided.  Anoka, Andover, Elk River, Duluth East

8AA –Undecided. Brainerd, Wilmar, Alexandria, St. Cloud Tech