Being down their No. 1 singles player in senior Charlie Weidman, who was on a college visit, the Eagles still made Waconia work extra hard as the Wildcats snagged a 4-3 win at New Ulm High School.

Fellow senior Dan Brownfield bumped up to No. 1 singles on Friday in place of Weidman and did enough to secure a super tiebreaker victory in a matchup that went almost three hours.

Brownfield defeated freshman Noah Rowe 7-6 (5), 5-7 and 10-5 in a super tiebreaker, which was played in place of a full third set due to time constraints.

While Brownfield joked about almost losing to a freshman, it was a good one at that in Rowe, who played No. 1 singles last year also for the Wildcats and made Brownfield move a lot.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Wyatt Feucht returns a shot during a No. 1 doubles match against Waconia on Friday at New Ulm High School.

“I almost lost to a freshman, so that’s great, but besides that, he just hit it back a lot,” Brownfield said. “So you kind of just gotta stay consistent with him and then try to make him make a mistake. After a while, you get tired and you’ve just gotta outlast him.”

Brownfield said he saw Rowe play Weidman last year and knew what to expect from him, but the senior still gave credit where it was due.

“Maybe a little but of luck,” Brownfield said. “Energy was probably a big thing. He didn’t look too tired either, though.”

The Eagles also got a win at No. 3 singles as Griffin Lehne defeated Brayden Jamison 6-1, 6-4. New Ulm’s No. 1 doubles duo of Wyatt Feucht and Thomas Lehne also got a competitive win, holding off Porter Burman and Jackson Strom 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

The Eagles needed a win from both their No. 1 and No. 2 singles players on the day Friday in order to win the meet overall, but Isaac Dittmer fell to a comeback by Winston Henriksen in a No. 2 singles match to clinch Waconia’s win. Dittmer had the early lead but Henriksen came back to win 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. Brownfield then finished the long meet with his win minutes later.

At No. 4 singles, Waconia’s Oscar Butler defeated Ryan Johnson 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Johnson, who typically plays No. 2 doubles with Everett Brown, was bumped up to No. 4 singles Friday and held his own despite the new spot.

Waconia won the No. 2 and 3 doubles matches. At No. 2 doubles, Ryder Bessire and Landon Bessire defeated Everett Brown and Hayden Owens, while No. 3 doubles saw Wyatt Kinkel and Avery Bellm defeat Aiden Weller-Caputo and Cole Frederick.

Eagles head coach Pete Engeldinger was still happy with what he saw in the meet considering the need to shuffle players around.

“They have to play up, they have to play above themselves a little bit,” Engeldinger said. “There’s always, when you switch out of your normal positions, you’re always a little bit revved up, but I loved it. I thought it was an amazing, competitive meet. [No.] 1, 2 and 3, those guys were rocking it. And at 4, Ryan Johnson, he had a tiebreaker in the first set, lost a little steam in the second set, but that’s a competitive match.”

Engeldinger said his No. 1 doubles team played well and he was glad he chose to keep them paired.

“One doubles was awesome,” Engeldinger said. “We’ve considered breaking them up and maybe putting one of them at the 4 singles spot, but we really like having them at 1 doubles. It was a question of who do you give that opportunity to play singles, because you only get four singles and once those are set, it’s hard to take that away from somebody. Ryan did a nice job and that was good to see.”

New Ulm is at a triangular in New Prague on Monday before returning home to host Yellow Medicine East on Tuesday.