Notre Dame tennis players get first-ever state win, Central No. 1 still alive

It didn't take long for the Central and Notre Dame players who participated at the Missouri state tennis tournament on Friday to understand that the competition at the 2014 state tournament was at a completely different level than they had been used to in the regular season.

Senior Mason Seesing and junior Brendan Boswell became the first players from Notre Dame to win a match at the state tournament as they defeated Joseph Scott and John Burnett of Thomas Jefferson 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round.

Their reward though was a match-up in the quarterfinals against the defending Class 1 state champions, Bailey Merkel and Derek Bell of Westminster Christian Academy. The outcome of that match was to be expected as Merkel, who clinched his fourth state doubles medal, and Bell, who will be playing tennis next year at Florida Southern, won 6-1, 6-1.

"It was great to win that first round match and become the first boy's team from Notre Dame to win a match at state," Seesing said. "That was our first goal."

And the Bulldog duo were not embarrassed at all against the talented Westminster duo, winning games in both sets against the defending state champions.

"We were a little nervous coming into the match playing against the champions," Boswell said. "But that feeling went away after the first game. We wanted to give them some competition and I felt that we played some good points and some good games. It is fun playing against guys like them."

Seesing and Boswell fell two games away from making it to a second day at state. They lost in the consolation quarterfinals to Cody Zeigler and James Eubanks of Grain Valley 8-6. The format was altered after there were two rain delays Friday. An eight-game pro set was used in the consolation bracket while a 10-point pro-set was used in place of a third set in the main draw.

The draw was no better for the Bulldogs' first state qualifier in singles. Senior Ben Wedemeier had to play Michael Peters of John Burroughs in the first round. Peters has played on team that have finished second and third in the state the last two years, he has finished second in doubles the last two years and is one of favorites to win the Class 1 singles title Saturday.

Peters won the match against Wedemeier 6-0, 6-0.

"My last match was against him a week ago in the team tournament and the result was the same," Wedemeier said. "I had one of the toughest draws but tried to do my best. A lot of these kids have been playing tennis for 10 years and that is not me."

Wedemeier probably had the toughest draw in the first round of consolations as well as he lost to talented Barstow freshman Fletcher Scott 8-1. Scott had seven match points before falling in his first round match against Joe McAllister of MICDS.

There will be one area player who will have a chance to play Saturday although his draw in the consolation semifinals is brutal. Central's Alex Mailes took advantage of a friendly draw and won his first round match over Andrew Lanson of Parkway Central 6-1, 6-1 before falling to Trevor Allen of Chaminade 6-2, 6-1.

Mailes earned his spot Saturday with an 8-3 win in the consolation quarterfinals over David Clausen of Jefferson City.

He is one win away from a medal but will have to face three-time state medalist Alex Pozo of CBC. Pozo lost his first round match to Alex Koca of state team champion Rockhurst.

The Mailes-Pozo match is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.