Lawrence High tennis coach Dick Wedel is no dummy.

The reason he waited until Thursday to play what he believes is the Lions’ top doubles team is simple. Sort of.

“We have to stagger the number of matches they play because of league rules, and I never felt like we could afford to have both of them out of our lineup at the same time,” he said.

The dynamic duo Wedel is talking about is Owe Rambau and Jon Weygint, and Thursday the two showed no ill effects from the season-long doubles delay.

They were the only Lions to win two matches Thursday at the Lawrence Tennis Center as LHS lost, 3-1, to Blue Valley West, and tied Olathe North, 2-2.

“We hadn’t had a chance to play with each other in a meet, but we knew that we’d do pretty good,” said Rambau, a junior who has also shared time at the No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles spots. “I think we’ll keep playing together. Hopefully we can find a good way to keep things up.”

If Thursday was any indication, chances look good for the team to secure the top doubles position for a 5-6-1 LHS squad.

“I think we’re narrowing in,” said Wedel, whose team has two matches left before Thursday’s Sunflower League meet at Shawnee Mission East. “They’d been competing in practice.

“We’re really talking about two things that they need to do better  attack more on service returns and play doubles side-by-side on every serve and volley.”

Weygint said he wasn’t concerned about the time off and said he and Rambau could gain enough consistency to compete down the stretch.

“I’m not to worried about it,” he said. “It feels good to get out here together. We need to still work on a few things, but we had a good day.”

No. 1 singles player Scott Elwell had another tough match.

After losing to Shawnee Heights’ Tyler Kinder on Tuesday, Elwell fell to BV West’s Travis Helgeson, 8-4, Thursday. But Elwell did pick up his 11th victory of the season against Olathe North.

Despite another mix-and-match day with his lineup, Wedel repeated that he was close to settling on his final group.

“We had another good day, and I’m getting close to making a few final decisions,” he said.