The Saint Louis U. High School racquetball team picked up its first win last Friday against Lindbergh. Against what was supposed to be one of the most challenging teams for SLUH to face off against, the varsity won 6-1 due to forfeits because of the coronavirus and hard fought matches. 

In the first match of the day, senior Danny Jurguens lost to Lindbergh's leading contender for state champion this year, 15-7, 15-13. 

But SLUH ended up sweeping the rest of the games on the day. The doubles team of juniors Will Shorey and Ben Harmon and SLUH’s No. 2 seed Oliver Allen (Sr.) ended up winning their matches by forfeit, as Lindbergh’s No. 2 seed and doubles team were unable to attend due to quarantine restrictions. This allowed SLUH to take a 2-0 start before the matches started on Friday.

“I think it was a really solid start,” said Allen. “Seeing how we played against that team that’s one of our top competitors makes me feel pretty confident we’ll be taking home another state title.”

 Next, junior Max Telken won his match easily, 15-7, 15-8. Telken stayed in control the whole match and proved his worthiness of being the highest seeded underclassmen on the team at No. 3. 

“I think varsity did well their first match,” said Telken. “Even with the limited practice time.”

After a slow start to his first match, junior Jared Thornberry ended up winning the first of the best of three series 15-11, 15-7. Next, the No. 5 seed junior Danny Philips finished his games with promising scores of 15-5, 15-4. Senior Nick Peterson played a tremendous No. 6 seed match, winning 15-1,15-0. Peterson took control and kept most of his back court shots on his forehand, allowing him to have an easy first match.

The Varsity-1 team looks towards its next matchup, with the SLUH Varsity-2 team on Dec. 3.

“We are so excited about this season,” said head coach Stephen Deves. “These games have allowed us to see that we have a lot of great and talented players.”