The wait is over. After eight long months of no racquetball, the varsity squad is ready to get straight into the season.  Coached by Stephen Deves and Robert Hoffmann and looking for their twelfth consecutive National Championship and 16th title overall, the St. Louis U. High racquetball team is already showing its dominance on the court. A perfect sweep against Lindbergh’s varsity squad on Nov. 14 shows that SLUH is a once again a force to be reckoned with thanks to a very deep and talented team. 

  Senior Luke Dannegger opened up his season with a nail biter of a game against Blake Herbert at No. 1 singles, 12-15, 15-4, 11-10. 

Senior Nick Heinlein also opened up with a victory, over Jack Fredrickson at No. 2 singles, 15-4, 15-12. 

Heinlein was pleased with his performance, but knows he can do better.  

“It went well,” said Heinlein. “I just need to know when to hit the ball with finesse rather than full power, to throw the opponent off.” 

No. 4 seed junior Charlie Gray defeated his opponent Ethan Willingham handily 15-6, 15-7.  After Gray was unable to play during the fall ladder, the team was unaware where he would fall, but with this strong performance, they believe he is in the right spot. 

Below Gray, No. 5 seed junior Gavyn McClure had the performance of the day. After two weeks of suffering from agonizing blisters, McClure defeated Thomas Vander Tuig, 15-3, 15-1. 

“I played better than I expected,” said McClure. “As a team, we played exceptionally well, and I am very excited for what’s to come next.” 

 McClure is looking to go undefeated this season, and hopefully end up as the No. 1 seed in the final state tournament. 

In the doubles realm, seniors Ben Williams and Joe Basse defeated their opponents Luke Wolf and Erik Wagner 15-5, 15-2. Though Basse played at a lower level last year and doesn’t have a lot of doubles experience, he looked as if he’d been playing for years. Both players have exceptional control paired with timely power, and they are a deadly duo.

 No. 3 seed senior Adrian Zepeda had a fierce battle with No. 6 seed senior Max Adelman after both of their opponents did not show up, resulting in a forfeit victory for the two. The game was too close to call when it was time to leave the court. 

Overall the team played exceptionally well and are already showing their ability to win it once more.

“The whole team set the tone as being great competitors,” said Deves. “Lindbergh is not going to be our top competitors, we will have to see how we play against a team like Kirkwood, but everybody looked really good, played really smart, and it was all around a great match.”

After a highly anticipated time off, the Jr. Bills did not fail to impress and once again are ready for the National Championship. Even though SLUH carries a big name in the sport, the team knows that they will still have to put in the work to secure the title to add on to the long streak. 

With Thanksgiving Break on the horizon, there will be no matches next week. The entire team looks to the Annual Top Turkey Shootout next Friday, while the top three seeds will play in the Top Seed Tournament later today, to keep their skills honed for their next match against Lafayette on Nov. 28.