Final home match draws big crowd
Bidding farewell to its seniors in their last home match against their biggest competition in front of one of their largest home crowds, the Wisconsin men’s tennis team seemed like it was finally going to break its 17-match losing streak against the Ohio State Buckeyes. In heartbreaking fashion, they fell just one point short, losing 4-3.From the first serve, emotions were running high.After fighting back from behind to win the doubles point in a tiebreaker, the whole squad was fired up and ready for the singles matches.“It’s always important to win double’s point, so it was definitely really good for us, especially against Ohio,” sophomore Patrick Pohlmann said. “We want to win the double’s point because we know that anybody from Ohio can beat anybody from us and the other way around, so it’s a huge advantage.“We were all fired up. We knew we could beat them. It’s been 17 times, now 18, we lost to them. We were all fired up.”Head coach Greg Van Emburgh also noted the advantage winning the doubles point gave the Badgers.“I mean, there’s an opportunity,” Van Emburgh said. “You win the doubles point, now you have to split the singles to get to four. I thought we had a good chance at that. The guys played good throughout the lineup — singles and doubles — it’s a little unfortunate we came out on the short end of the stick. You hope fairy tales work out sometimes, but it was not to be today.”Although Pohlmann and senior Luke Rassow-Kantor used the doubles win to their advantage — both winning their singles matches — frustration was mounting for the others.Rassow-Kantor won Wisconsin’s second point on the day in an exciting tiebreaker victory for the second set. For the senior, the exciting individual win was a near perfect way to end his career at home.“It meant a lot,” Rassow-Kantor said. “It was my last match so I really wanted to get a win at home. We still got Big Ten’s and NCAA’s, but it was my last home match, so I really wanted to get this one.“It would have meant more if as a team we won. It’s good to win, but it just sucks that the team lost.”Coming down to what felt like a perfect setting for the win, senior Moritz Baumann became the deciding factor. But Baumann was unable to pull out the victory over Justin Kronauge in No. 2 singles.“It was really close,” Rassow-Kantor said. “It could have went either way and it just sucked to see him go down like that.”“You’re hoping that he’ll be able to dig deep enough and play hard enough to give himself a chance,” Van Emburgh said. “It was a little unfortunate there. Justin’s a great player — he’s lost one match the whole year — you better be over 100 percent to beat him. I think Justin’s a good player and you know it’s a coin toss on both ends there in the third set.”Although the outcome wasn’t quite what Wisconsin was hoping for, all three seniors were able to notch wins on the day whether it was in singles or doubles.“I mean there’s a lot of emotions,” Van Emburgh said. “There was a great crowd today. I felt like we couldn’t have had a better college setting today. You know, just a great college match and you hope you’re on the right end of the stick of it and we weren’t today. It was great that the guys were able to play some great tennis on Senior Day.”
Any final decision on permanent use for the space will be determined at a later date after Council has examined further options.The matter will be discussed further at the next Council meeting on May 25. At Monday’s City Council meeting, Council was presented with a report by City staff on the development of the vacant lot at 100 Street and 100 Avenue. Staff recommended the construction of an interim park at the site however some members of council were hesitant on the idea, and as such a decision on how to develop the space was put off until the next City Council meeting.Councillor Byron Stewart expressed concern over having a park near late night establishments, and the extra stress that it may put on the RCMP.“My concern with the hills and trees and such, is a situation of a park that use to be in downtown Grande Prairie that was located near bars. This space would also be near bars. It’s a space where we had a person who was killed just outside of this green space. In summer time we do have a number of persons intoxicated within our down town core.”- Advertisement -Trevor Bolin added that while a potential interim park may help bring people down town, the benefit would be limited. He said the area may also attract the City’s less fortunate given the location.“The whole premise to that corner piece, and this goes back to elections when we were discussing this with the public is bringing people to the down town. Yes it will work for the coffee shops four months out of the year but I do have a concern with it becoming a homeless haven. As other businesses are taking necessary steps to prevent the issues they have, this becomes quite a large play field from nine o’clock at night until six o’clock in the morning.”Council also discussed the possibility of planting sod and levelling the area off to make it more visually appealing in the mean time while an interim and permanent solution for the space is determined.Advertisement
Manchester United will take on Ajax in the Europa League final on Wednesday, May 24 in Stockholm.You can listen to the game live on talkSPORT from 7pm as Jose Mourinho’s team attempt to end the season on a high and book a place in next term’s Champions League in the process.Here are all the stats and facts you need to know ahead of the big game…* This will be the first time since 2002 that a Dutch club has reached a UEFA Cup/Europa League final (Feyenoord); Manchester United are the third English side in five seasons to reach the final (Chelsea in 2013 and Liverpool in 2016).* Ajax and Manchester United have met four times before in European competition sharing two wins apiece (two games in the first round of the 1976/77 UEFA Cup and two legs in the round of 32 during the 2011/12 Europa League campaign).* This will be the third meeting between English and Dutch sides in a European final (also Spurs v Feyenoord in 1974, and Ipswich v AZ in 1981, both in the UEFA Cup).* Ajax are in their first European final since their penalty shoot-out defeat to Juventus during the 1995/96 Champions League campaign.* The Europa League final will be played exactly 22 years after Ajax claimed their last European trophy by beating Milan in the 1995 Champions League final; that game featured Justin Kluivert’s father, Patrick, and Daley Blind’s father, Danny.* The Dutch club have lifted the trophy in six of their last eight major European finals whilst the Red Devils have won four of their six; those two defeats coming in the most recent appearances however (2008/09 and 2010/11 Champions League finals versus Barcelona).* Manchester United have reached the final of the Europa League/UEFA Cup for the first time in their history.* The Red Devils have gone 10 matches unbeaten in this competition (W7 D3); conceding just four goals in that time.* This game will be the 56th official game for Ajax this season, a new club record for the Amsterdam side.* Ajax have lost two of their last three Europa League outings; letting in seven goals across that period.* Ajax have lost three of their last four matches played in the UEFA Cup/Europa League against English opposition (W1) whilst United have lost two of their last three in this competition versus Dutch clubs (W1).* Just two of the last 16 UEFA Cup/Europa League finals have been decided by a penalty shoot-out (Sevilla beating Espanyol on penalties in the 2006/07 edition and then doing the same to Benfica in the 2013/14 campaign); 10 have been won in 90 minutes with a further four being decided in extra-time.* There have been nine goals scored across the last two Europa League finals (an average of 4.5 per game).* José Mourinho has won all six meetings with Ajax as a manager; those previous matches have all come in the Champions League with Real Madrid.* Stockholm’s Friends Arena is hosting a UEFA club competition final for the very first time.* Marcus Rashford has been directly involved in each of Manchester United’s last four goals in the Europa League (two goals & two assists).* Hakim Ziyech has recorded four assists in his last three Europa League appearances for Ajax.* No player has recorded more shots on target this season in this competition than Bertrand Traoré (16); only Zenit’s Giuliano (14) has been directly involved in more goals this term than Traoré (8 – four goals and four assists).* Only Patrick Kluivert and Ton Blanker (both 7) have scored more goals than Kasper Dolberg (6) as a teenager for Ajax in European competition.* Amin Younes (73) has completed more dribbles in the Europa League this season than the next two best players combined (Paul Pogba, 37 and Bertrand Traoré, 31). Manchester United and Ajax will play for this glittering prize 1