Girls’ tennis team bounces back after midweek lull

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The Raiders girls’ tennis team won 18 of 21 matches Saturday (August 29) on its way to a 3-0 record at the Menomonie Quad.

Earlier in the week the Raiders went 1-2 at the rain-shortened Green Bay Southwest Super 16 Tournament last Monday and Tuesday, and dropped their Big Rivers Conference opener to Eau Claire Memorial, 4-3, on Thursday.

Hudson will resume BRC play Thursday, Sept. 3 at River Falls at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8, the Raiders return home to host Rice Lake at 4 p.m.

Saturday in Menomonie, the Raiders defeated Winona 6-1, Menomonie 5-2, and Wausau West 7-0 to improve to 13-5 overall.

“To win 18 of 21 matches today was outstanding,” head coach Dave Dahl said. “We had a bit of a lull in the middle of the week, so it was nice to come back strong to finish a tough week. Now the focus goes to winning conference dual meets.”

Julia Johnson, Nicole Buechler and Morgan Van Allen all went 3-0 in singles play while Morgan Karras was 2-0 and Chelsea Buechler won her only singles match against Winona.

At No. 3 doubles, Kelsey Scharfenberg and Lauren Duffy were 2-0 and Duffy and Whitney Theisen teamed up to go 1-0.

Hanna Naegeli and Casey Fall went 1-0 at No. 2 doubles while Naegeli and Whitney Theisen were 1-1. Alise Riedel and Casey Fall were 1-1 at No. 1 doubles while Riedel and Karras lost their only match together against Winona.

At Eau Claire Memorial Thursday, the Raiders and Old Abes split their singles matches but the Old Abes won two of three in doubles play to pull out the 4-3 win.

Johnson won 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles and Nicole Buechler won 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2) at No. 2 while Theisen and Duffy prevailed, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3) at No. 3 doubles. Naegeli and Fall went to three sets before losing 7-6 (3), 5-7, 2-6 at No. 2 doubles.

“We put ourselves in a position to get them today and just couldn’t quite get it done,” Dahl said. “Julia beat a quality opponent at one singles and it was nice to see Nicole at two singles and Whitney and Lauren at three doubles perform well under the pressure of match tiebreakers.”

At the Green Bay Southwest Super 16 Tournament last Monday Hudson opened with a 6-1 victory over Madison East before losing to Green Bay Southwest 4-3. Tuesday they lost to Eau Claire North 5-2 and were ahead of Middleton in the final round before the rains came.

Tags: sports, raiders, tennis