Grundy Center boys tennis coach Sage Klar said the Spartans nearly reeled in the big fish on Saturday afternoon in Waterloo.

Waterloo Columbus got off the hook with superior doubles play, edging Grundy Center 5-3 in a substate semifinal at Byrnes Park Tennis Center.

The Sailors advanced to Wednesday’s substate final with Decorah. Grundy Center’s season ends at 12-4.

Columbus defeated Grundy Center 9-0 in the Spartans’ first meet of the season on April 3.

“It just shows how far our guys have come in these last eight weeks,” Klar said. “It’s really all to them, they work every day, we have a two-hour practice and the guys stay later, they want to beat teams like this, and I think they can eventually. We had the big fish on the line and all you can really ask for is to give yourself a chance.”

The teams were tied at 3-3 after singles play, with wins from Elias Cakerice, Kael Edwards and Dayton Myers.

The Sailors got a boost from Rudy Lind at No. 5 singles, who rallied to a 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-6) victory in a match that could’ve had Grundy Center within one doubles win of victory.

From there, Columbus was able to lean on their No. 1 doubles team of singles state qualifier Parker Stroh and Lind for a quick 6-0, 6-0 win and Bryce Noland and Drew Schultz finished the match with a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles.

“Stroh’s top 10 in the state for a reason,” Klar said. “I think Carson [Laube] will give him a run for his money next year, but it really didn’t matter who we put out there in that spot, they were going to take that one, so you tip the hat to them on that and try to get the other two. And our guys fought hard.”

Grundy Center reached the substate final with a swift 5-0 win over Osage. Evan Bingman, Kael Edwards, Michael Lang and Dayton Myers all scored straight-set victories, while Elias Cakerice was able to stave off a comeback from Brady Nicholson at No. 2 singles for a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (13-11) win. Freshman Carson Laube was in a good battle with Jarin Camlin at No. 1 singles, taking the first set 6-3 but tied 6-6 in set two before Cakerice scored the match-winner.

Laube was just one of two non-seniors in the Spartan lineup this year, along with Kael Edwards who will be a junior next season.

“There’s definitely a foundation set,” Klar said. “We’ve got a couple good JV guys too that couldn’t quite fit in the lineup because we had six seniors, but they played those varsity guys in practice and iron sharpens iron, so I’m optimistic for our future.”

Bingman, Cakerice, Lang, Myers and Remington Tack all played their final tennis for Grundy Center on Saturday. Senior Vin Del Castillo was also on the Spartan roster this spring.

“The guys left it better than they found it,” Klar said. “We were 6-6 last year, 12-4 this year, and that’s with losing our best player who got third at state last year [Tanner Laube]. That’s credit to the work they did, and they couldn’t even play all summer with the courts being redone. But they constantly overcame that adversity, won a lot of matches we probably shouldn’t have won, maybe lost a couple we should’ve, but they’re all good leaders, and I’ll miss them.”

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