By John RittenhouseLuverne High School athletes Patrick Bennett and Dusty Antoine will make a repeat appearance at the state tournament after their performance during the Section 3A Individual Tennis Tournament played in Redwood Valley Thursday and Tuesday.Bennett, a senior, and Antoine, a junior, went 4-0 to win the doubles competition at the section event.The Luverne boys won four straight matches in straight sets to secure their first section championship.Bennett and Antoine placed at the Section Individual Tennis Tournament as a doubles team in 2003, which sent them to their first appearance at the state classic. They lost their first match at state and were eliminated from the competition.As the Section 3A champions, Bennett and Antoine will face the runners-up of Section 2 in the opening round of the Minnesota State Class A Tennis Championships in Burnsville Thursday, June 10. They will play a 10 a.m. match at the Northwest Athletic Club to open the event.Luverne coach Greg Antoine was happy with the way his doubles team played in Redwood Falls."I think the big thing was their confidence," he said. "They went into this tournament with a lot of confidence. They both had good years, and they’ve been to the state tournament before, and they knew what they had to do to get back there."Bennett and Antoine, the tournament’s No. 1 seeded team, rolled to a pair of wins during tournament play Thursday.They coasted to 6-1 and 6-0 victories over Lac qui Parle Valley’s Jamin and Darren Schweiger, the 16th-seeded squad, in the first round.The Luverne team then registered a pair of 6-1 wins over eighth-seeded Nathan Briones and Keith Gordan, of Montevideo, in the quarterfinals.Bennett and Antoine continued their solid play Tuesday.They beat Yellow Medicine East’s Justin Thomas and Andrew Hewitt, the No. 4-seeded team, by 6-3 and 6-1 tallies.Lac qui Parle Valley’s Ian and Dutch Hansen, the tournament’s second-seeded squad, met the Luverne squad in the finals.Antoine and Bennett notched a 6-2 in the first set before falling behind 4-3 in the second set. The Cardinals rallied to win the next three games and clinch a 6-4 win."They had to earn it in that last match," said coach Antoine. "Ian Hansen is an eighth-grader, and Dutch Hansen is a sophomore, and they played very well."While Bennett and Antoine move on, the season came to an end for the rest of the Cardinals during Thursday’s rounds of the individual tournament.Kyle Fletcher and Derek Boeve formed a doubles team that drew the 10th seed for the event.Fletcher and Boeve upset Worthington’s seventh-seeded team consisting of Ben Clark and Nate Peterson in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 match during the first round. Lac qui Parle Valley’s Ian and Dutch Hansen, the second-seeded team, handed the LHS squad 6-4 and 6-1 setbacks in the quarterfinals.David Nelson and Brandon Deragisch played singles for Luverne.Nelson drew the No. 8 seed, and he topped Worthington’s Tim Miller by 6-0 and 6-1 scores in the first round. No. 1-seeded Matt Flaherty, from Montevideo, saddled Nelson with 6-3 and 6-0 setbacks in the quarterfinals.Deragisch, the 14th seed, dropped 6-2 and 6-0 sets to third-seeded Zach Rieger, of MACCRAY, in the first round.
