At the NICL Conference Tournament held Wednesday, May 18th the Union boys finished the season with 4th place finish as a team.
At number 1 Singles TJ Gray won his first match over the Number 3 seed Cole Melby of Hudson by a 8-6 score. He then lost to Bryon Winkey of A/P 2-8, and finished strong with a 8-5 victory over Blake Baker of South Hardin to finish in 3rd place.
At number 2 Singles Josh Spragg lost his first match to Number 3 seed Lance Welsh of Dike-New Hartford 4-8, but rebounded well with wins over Blake Hook of Grundy Center 8-2 and a 8-0 whitewashing of Nick Miller of South Hardin to finish in 5th place.
At number 3 Singles Rick Bauer lost a close match 6-8 to the number 2 seed, Riley Wells of Grundy Center, then lost a very close 7-9 decsion to Max Gaffey of Dike New Hartford.
At number 4 Singles Robert Leipold won his first match 8-1 over Dalton Miller of South Hardin and then lost the closest match of the day to the number 2 seed Kollin Cuvelier of Aplington/Parkersburg 8-9 losing the tiebreaker 7-4. He had a match point in this match but failed to hold on. Robert then lost his consolation match 6-8 to the #4 Seed Kyle Wiebers of NU to finish in 4th place.
At number 5 Singles, Richard Leipold won his first round match over Ethan Balvanz of South Hardin 8-3, then met top seeded Richard Uhlenhopp of A/P and lost 2-8. Richard came back strong in the consolation winning 8-4 over the 3rd seeded Doug Curran 8-4 to capture 3rd place.
At number 6 Singles Casey Tecklenburg lost to the number 2 seeded Nick Oldenburger of A/P in the first round 5-8. Casey came back to win his next match 8-6 over Ben Vryson of Dike New Hartford and then won 8-1 over Dallas Osburn of South Hardin to take 5th place.
In Doubles, at Number 1, Gray/Spragg won their first round match 8-2 over Harris/Hook of Grundy Center. They then ran into the number 1 seeds and state qualifying team of Winkey/Haugstad of A/P and lost 3-8. Unfortunately then played against the Hudson duo of Melby/Grams for the 3rd time this season coming out on the short end 2-8 to finish in 4th place.
At number 2 doubles, Bauer/Robert Leipold lost their first round match 6-8 to Gaffey/Freese of Dike New Hartford, then lost to Grundy's Wells/Boren 4-8.
At number 3 doubles Richard Leipold/Casey Tecklenburg lost their first round match 3-8 to Wiebers/Dhanwada of NU, then came back with a bye and finished with a victory over Freesemen/Schott of Dike for 5th place by a score of 8-1.
Overall we played up to expectations, we lost a couple of key matches that may have enhanced our opportunity to move up. We had a beautiful day to play. Final Team Standings; Aplington/Parkersburg 66, Hudson 61, NU 53, Union 39, Dike New Hartford 36, Grundy Center 35,and South Hardin 22.