MADISON — Rewind a few hours and this moment didn’t seem possible.
The smiles. The pictures. The joy. It all seemed unlikely.
But there they were, the members of Middleton’s boys tennis team, traipsing around on court 6 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium relishing their runner-up finish at the WIAA Division 1 team state tournament last Saturday afternoon.
The silver trophy was being passed around as the smartphone camera shutters clicked.
Middleton got there thanks to a come-from-behind win against Lake Geneva Badger in the semifinals.
The first three completed matches went third-seeded Badger’s way, giving second-seeded Middleton no margin for error in the other four matches.
The Cardinals rose to the challenge, though, winning all four to advance to the finals, where they suffered a 5-2 loss to top-seeded Brookfield Central.
The finals, though, turned into a bit of an afterthought.