Tennis opens with pair of wins

The Raider girls’ tennis team received contributions from both its returning players and newcomers while winning two of three matches at the season-opening Eau Claire North Quad last Saturday in Eau Claire.

The Raiders swept Superior and Eau Claire North by identical 7-0 scores before falling to Eau Claire Regis, 5-2.

“With so many new faces in the lineup, I was happy to win two of three today,” head coach Dave Dahl said. “Superior was not very strong, but it was a good team effort to sweep North and we were just a couple of tiebreakers away from getting past Regis.”

Seniors Alex Johnson and Bailey Knight led the way by winning all three of their matches at the No. 1 doubles position.

“It’s a challenging flight, but I know these two have high expectations for themselves and we’ll look to these two to lead the charge this season,” Dahl said.

Dahl said senior MacKenzie Murphy and sophomore Meaghan Buechler looked good in winning their first two singles matches of the year. Murphy rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Superior and picked up the Raiders’ only singles win against Eau Claire Regis, 6-4, 7-5, while Buechler’s wins came against Superior and Eau Claire North.

Kelsie Hines and Emily Schertz battled hard at the top two singles positions, as did Sydney Squires and Julia Douglas at No. 2 doubles, according to Dahl. All three went 2-1 on the day.

The Raiders will be at the River Falls Triple Dual this Saturday at 9 a.m. and head to Green Bay Southwest for a two-day invitational Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 20-21. Dahl said it will take awhile to settle on a lineup that will fill the gaps left by the players lost to graduation.

“We lost a lot of talent to graduation last year and it will take a while to sort out the lineup this season,” he said. “I look forward to the girls competing in practice as we move ahead.”

Tags: sports, raiders, tennis