The Minnetonka Women’s Tennis team entered the 2-2A section tournament as a big favorite and played the role by defeating Shakopee and Eden Prairie on Tuesday, October 14 to go to the state tournament for the third consecutive year.
The skippers beat Shakopee in the semi-finals in the section with a score of 7-0. Six of the seven matches were decided in two sets, the double n ° 1 match being the only competition that was passed to three sets.
Solid programming of skippers had no problem with the sabers because the four players won their matches easily.
Aria Lambert, class 2A title champion and player No. 1 in the state, defeated vonnick Boyogueno de Shakopee 6-1, 6-1.
Jessa Richards defeated Katrina Donahue 6-0, 6-1 in simple n ° 2. Heather Abzug took care of Marina Timmerman 6-3, 6-1 to the simple n ° 3. BRI Smith finished the sweep for the Skippers with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Sam Root in simple n ° 4.
Tandem n ° 1 of the skippers of Noelle Wagner and Paige Baldwin had a minor hiccup in their match when they lost the second set 6-0 against Kayla Worm of Shakopee and Dannick Boyogueno.
Wagner and Baldwin joined, however, to win the 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 game.
Emily Carver and Sydney Baldwin beat Courtney Paaverud and Heather Paaverud 6-2, 6-2 at n ° 2 in doubles.
Maggie Kregerus and Madison Rossebo had no problem with Jenny Ernst and Krstina Worm in double n ° 3, winning 6-1, 6-1.
In the final match of the section, Eden Prairie decided to mix her programming and put her two best players in single – Makenna Borg and Maddie Buxton – in the double n ° 1 position.
This decision led to three easy victories for Lambert, Richards and Abzug to the three main simple positions for Minnetonka.
“We knew that if they mixed their alignments, that would weaken their alignment in simple,” said head coach of skippers Dave Stearns. “So I decided to stay with my simple programming and I hope we could sweep the matches in simple.”
Lambert beat Ziyue Chen without dropping a match, 6-0, 6-0. Richards defeated Allison Malmsten 6-0, 6-1 and Abzug, like Lambert, beat Alexa Heupel 6-0, 6-0.
With three points in the bag just 30 minutes in the match, the skippers only needed one more point to close the match and obtained it from their team of Double 2 from Carver and Sydney Baldwin.
“My double n ° 2 and n ° 3 teams played better and better,” said Stearns. “So it was not really a surprise for me that they won their match.
Shortly after winning the match, Minnetonka obtained a straight victory in Simple N ° 4 by Claire Pfleiderer to finally win the 5-2 match.
The skippers now move into the state tournament where they will face the winners of the 5-2A section of Mounds View in the quarterfinals.
The upper part of the class 2A state tournament support is absolutely loaded with classified skippers n ° 3 and the Mustang meeting classified n ° 6 in the first quarter -final.
The second quarter -final presents the n ° 1 classified Edina and n ° 2 classified Rochester Mayo.
“It is a little regrettable that the upper half of the support is loaded so strongly because they are four of the best teams in the State,” said Stearns. “The lower support does not have as many more classified teams.”
Cretin-Derham Hall n ° 8 and unreverse Rosemount will meet in one of the quarter-finals in the lower support. The teams making up the fourth and last quarter -final had not been decided when this edition of Lakeshore Weekly News went into press.
Wayzata falls in Edina
The Wayzata women’s tennis team fell in the final of section 6-2A in Power Edina by a 5-1 score.
Caitlin Eichten was the player of Lone Trojans to win her match in single n ° 3. Eichten beat Caroline Hintz from Edina 6-2, 6-4.
The Trojans fought well in double n ° 2 and n ° 3, but could not win one or the other match.
Emma Macdonald and Aneesha Ahluwalia lost their match at n ° 2 in double against Jane Okerman and Minisha Lohani 7-5, 7-5.
Meredith Ries and Sloane Gallagher lost their match at No. 1 in double against Katie Medlar and Sheri Hickey 6-2, 6-0.
The player in simple n ° 1 Claire Elkin and the simple player n ° 2 Brooke Fiemann both lost their matches in straight sets.
The player of simple n ° 4 Nirupa Galagedera saw her match suspended with Molly Harris after the two players won a set.
Blake falls into the final section
The Blake girl tennis team also dropped from a match unless you go to the state tournament. The Bears lost their final match of 5-2 section against the seeded Mounts Park Academy.
Individual sections in progress
Lambert started her quest to defend her individual title when she crossed her first two section games on Saturday October 17.
Lambert beat Meg Lee d’Eden Prairie and Victoria Barbetta d’Oro by identical scores of 6-0, 6-0.
Richards also won his first two games with time. She beat Ellie Ross 6-0, 6-0 and Eden Prairie de Delano, Chen 6-1, 6-1.
The individual tournament of section 2-2A will end with the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the finals on Tuesday October 20 at the Gustavus Adolphus College.
Lambert should play Cassidy Miller by Mankato East in a quarter -final, while Richards will play vonnick Boyogueno from Shakopee in another quarter -final.
Lambert and Richards would be played in the semi-finals if they both prevailed in the quarter-final.
“They both play well, it is just unfortunate that it is very possible for them to meet in the semi-finals,” said Stearns. “It is possible that one of them plans four games in one day to qualify for the state tournament.”
