Tennis: Sqeakers don’t go team’s way at home invitational

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The Farmington tennis team didn’t pick up any wins, but managed to be competitive while playing in three different match formats last week.

The Tigers opened the season last Monday by placing second out of three teams in the Mound Doubles Tournament. The team then lost a 4-3 heartbreaker in a head-to-head match against Faribault Thursday before coming in third out of four teams at its own Farmington Invitational Friday morning at Boeckman Middle School.

The Tigers lost to meet champion Cannon Falls and second-place Belle Plaine 7-0 Friday, but edged New Life Academy for third place with a 6-1 victory.

The doubles team of Rachel Rees and Liz Adams finished as runner-up, winning two out of three matches. Maggie Rudorfer, Melanie Kappes and Megan Stivers each went 1-2 at second, third and fourth singles to tie for second place.

“We lost a number of squeakers, dropping all five matches that went to a deciding third set tiebreaker,” Farmington coach Jack Olwell said. “Most of the matches were competitive, which was one of the major objectives of the tourney.”

Singles victories by Kappes and Stivers, and a doubles win by the team of Katie Burgess and Ally Midboe pushed the Tigers’ Thursday match to a 3-3 tie with just the No. 3 doubles match yet to be decided. The tandem of Kassie Seegert and ShyAnne Spurzem won their first set 6-2, but Faribault rallied to take the final two sets 7-5, 6-0 to take the match.

Spurzem and Kappes teamed up to turn in the only 2-0 record for Farmington at last Monday’s Mound Doubles Tournament. The Tigers ended up second with five points, four behind Mound and one better than third-place Bloomington Kennedy.

Six of the other eight Farmington doubles teams split their matches.

Tags: high school, sports, farmington, prep, tennis