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By Rukhshona Islamova |Sports|

As the season comes to an end boys tennis is looking good. The varsity team is 4-3 in duals and has had a strong showing against Grand Island and Fremont. A great fight was also put up against Southeast high school, who has been one of their toughest competitors along with Papillion LaVista High and Millard North. 

Out of the tournaments they have had, there have been two strong showings from the team. Junior Will Brandt and sophomore Pablo Souto finished in 2nd place at their invitational and three of the four divisions reached semi-finals at the Millard North invite. The team has seen some pretty big changes since last year.

There are only four returning players, Brandt, Souto, and seniors Ethan Bruha and Alex Hamann. They are from last year’s team that finished 10th at state.

Sophomore Christopher Penas-Hull, has also been a surprising addition to the team, having jumped from reserve to varsity in the short span of a year.

Head coach, Todd Sandberg is proud to be a part of this team. He was excited to talk about his favorite match of the season.

“The most exciting match was against Fremont in which we won 5-4 and the dual was decided on the last match. What was nice about that dual is everyone contributed to earn a point,” Sandberg said.

Hamann and Bruha are the captains of the team and have been playing all throughout their high school careers. They said that they felt the team was very strong the first few years they attended Lincoln High, but a lot of players left, and it kind of messed up the team.

“I feel as if we are progressing as an overall team and sport at Lincoln High,” Hamann said.  “I’ve really enjoyed seeing new players work their way up through the teams, from reserve to jv and jv to varsity.” Both captains said they were very proud of the fact that even though they have lost good players, they are still competing to the best of their abilities.

The season concludes with state on October 12th and 13th at Koch Tennis Center.