Six members of the boys tennis team competed at the regional competition at De Soto High School on Friday, May 5. The team was awarded second place overall with several other individual placings.

Seniors Alec Bergeron and Andrew Bock earned first place at the tournament as a doubles team. According to Bergeron, the team struggled a bit to meet their goal for the competition.

“Our biggest challenge was coming back from a deficit in our championship match,” Bergeron said. “We expected the team to get first, unfortunately we were barely behind to get second.”

For Billings, his shoulder injury was the toughest part of the experience.

“My biggest challenge was that I have two injured shoulders and it made it hard to play,” Billings said. “I had to sit out of a week for practice leading up to regionals due to my injured shoulders.”

Due to his injury, Billings faced difficulty in preparing for the competition.

“Since I was injured for regionals, my preparation basically included resting and icing as much as I could,” Billings said. “Coach [Steve Bock] had me sit out of the big EKL tournament on account of my injury and also sit out of practices. A couple days before regionals I was able to play some tennis and get warmed up but I would have liked to be able to hit more.”

Senior Parker Billings met his expectations by receiving third place individually.

“My expectation going into regionals was pretty much what happened. As a team we got runner up although we were hoping to finish first,” Billings said. “As an individual, my goal was to get third or higher to get a good seeding at state so my expectations were fairly realistic for my preparation and ability.”