By John RittenhouseA Luverne High School doubles team earned a berth in the Minnesota State Class A Individual Tennis Tournament during the Section 3A event played in Redwood Falls Thursday and Tuesday.Dusty Antoine and Patrick Bennett, singles players for LHS most of the season, went 3-1 to place second in doubles during the section tournament.Antoine, a sophomore, and Bennett, a junior, entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed and finished in the second spot.With the top two doubles teams earning trips to the state event, the Cardinal twosome will compete at the Class A Tournament in Burnsville Thursday, June 5. The Luverne team will play the Section 5A champions at 10 a.m. at the Northwest Athletic Club in Burnsville.Bennett and Antoine posted a pair of straight set wins to open the section tournament Thursday.The Cardinals handed Worthington’s Jason Johnson and Nate Peterson, seeded 15th, a pair of 6-0 setbacks. The Luverne team then disposed of seventh-seeded Reed Larson and Laron Schottenbauer, of Redwood Valley, by 6-1 scores.Bennett and Antoine squared off against Pipestone’s Casey Carmody and Paul Williamson in Tuesday’s semifinals. Luverne topped the sixth-seeded Pipestone squad by 6-2 scores.Pipestone’s Pat Wieme and Scott Vander Poel, the No. 1 seed, ended the Luverne team’s run by posting 6-0 and 6-1 wins over the Cardinals in the finals.The 2003 season came to an end for two Luverne singles players and another doubles team during Thursday’s play in Redwood Falls.Montevideo’s Matt Flaherty, the No. 4 seed in singles, recorded 6-1 and 6-0 wins over No. 13 Derek Boeve.MACCRAY’s Kyle Boyke saddled Chris Vickery with 6-4 and 6-1 setbacks during a match between the No. 6 and No. 11 seeds respectively.Yellow Medicine East’s Nathan Morland and Andrew Hewitt, the No. 5 seed in doubles, won a three-set match (6-2, 4-6, 6-1) from Steven Althoff and John Kreuch, the 12th-seeded team.
