By John RittenhouseIn a match that took two days to complete, the Luverne tennis squad advanced to the semifinals of the Section 3A Team Tournament by defeating Lac qui Parle Valley in Luverne Monday and Tuesday.The match was scheduled to be played Monday, but rain forced the event to be postponed after three matches were in the books.The teams resumed play Tuesday, with Luverne winning three of the final four points to secure a 6-1 victory over No. 8 LQPV.Luverne, the tournament’s top seed, took a 17-4 record into Wednesday’s semifinal round that was played in Redwood Falls. The Cards met No. 4 Pipestone in the semifinals, and they would have played in the championship match later that day with a victory over the Arrows.It was Luverne’s dominating doubles teams that turned the match in the favor of the home team Monday. The Cards won 36 of 38 games in doubles play on the way to three straight set wins."They had four first-year seniors playing doubles, and we dominated them," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "You could tell our kids were much more experienced. We finished them off early and fast."Steven Althoff and Brandon Deragisch handed Cody Swenson and Phillip Roeder 6-0 and 6-1 losses at No. 1 doubles. David Nelson and John Kreuch saddled Kevin Cerny and Aaron Irvine with a pair of 6-0 setbacks at No. 2. Chris Vickery and Nick Heronimus coasted to 6-0 and 6-1 victories over Justin Siegert and James Roggenback at No. 3.Singles play continued on Tuesday, where Dusty Antoine, Kyle Fletcher and Derek Boeve secured the win for LHS.Antoine won a 6-7 (9-11 in the tiebreaker), 6-2, 7-2 (tiebreaker play was used to decide the third set) match from Dutch Hansen at No. 1. Fletcher notched 6-4 and 6-1 victories over Jamin Schweiger at No. 3. Boeve secured a pair of 6-1 victories against Darren Schweiger at No. 4.LQPV’s Ian Hansen lost the first set of the No. 2 singles match against Patrick Bennett by a 4-6 tally on Monday, but Hansen bounced back to post 6-1 and 6-2 victories Tuesday.
