Potential Growing for Cyclone Boys’ Tennis Despite Difficult Stretch

Potential Growing for Cyclone Boys’ Tennis Despite Difficult Stretch –

(4-15-26) – Three events in four days. It can be tough for any team to deal with early in the season.

Harlan Community boys’ tennis dealt with that when they placed 4th at the Shenandoah Invitational on Saturday, then fell to Denison-Schleswig 9-0 Monday, and dropped a heartbreaker to Lewis Central 5-4 on Tuesday.

Cyclone Co-Coach Michael Rueschenberg knows with the right bounces, their dual against the Titans could’ve ended differently.

“Caden Herbst's singles match was the last one on the court. It was tied 6-6, and then he ended up losing 6-8. So, I mean, the meet was right there for the taking, and we lost one of our doubles in a tiebreaker. So, that meet was theoretically three or four points away from being flipped to a 5-4 result in our favor. So, we're really happy with how we competed at various levels against Lewis Central.”

But, despite a tough stretch, Harlan Community has several athletes showing promise. Such as junior Dale Schuering, who’s 3-3 on the season with 31 game wins.

“The thing with Dale,” added Rueschenberg, “He's playing down at our No. 6 for singles, and that's giving him an opportunity to face some competition that he's really able to get some wins and then he's playing at number two doubles with Caden… They're pretty familiar with each other's games. So, I think those two things are big and then the next biggest thing is when Dale kind of just slows down and focuses on the same repetition, the same consistency. He can hit really good shots.”

Freshman Jameson Arentson stepped up his game against Lewis Central, earning an 8-3 win over the Titans Bryce Schultz and teaming with Ramsey Hussing for the Cyclones only doubles win, 8-4 over Schultz and AJ Smith. Rueschenberg feels the lack of miscues has helped Arentson to start his varsity career.

“He's just not making mistakes. He is just getting the ball back over the net and back over the net and back over the net.

“Not only does he try to minimize his mistakes, he also knows when to sometimes pull out a really good shot with a really good angle.”

Harlan Community will look to get another dual in the win column when they host Audubon Thursday.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats