By John Rittenhouse
A Luverne High School senior extended the tennis season by winning two straight matches during the Section 3A Individual Tournament played in Redwood Falls Tuesday.
Becky Antoine, Luverne's No. 1 singles player all season, went 2-0 in singles to advance to the events' semifinals that will be played at Gustavus Alolphus College in St. Peter Friday.
Antoine, the tournament's No. 4 seed, will square off against MACCRAY's Molly Dammann, the No. 1 seed, at 10 a.m. in St. Peter.
Antoine won both of her matches in Redwood Falls in straight sets.
She disposed of No. 12 seed Linda Gano, of Redwood Valley, by 6-2 and 6-4 scores in the first round. Antoine upset No. 4 Paula Bickermann, of New London-Spicer, by 6-4 and 6-3 scores in the quarterfinals.
The way things turned out, Antoine is the only Cardinal advancing to the semifinals.
Rachel Tofteland, the fifth seed in singles, secured 6-3 and 6-2 wins over Lac qui Parle Valley's Madeline Gail in Tuesday's opening round. RWV's Kate Maland, the No. 2 seed, eliminated Tofteland in the quarterfinals by handing her 6-1 and 6-0 setbacks.
Luverne's Gabe Van Dyk and Jenny Braa, seeded 11th in doubles, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-6 (the tie-breaker went to the Luverne team by a 7-2 tally) over RWV's Olivia Schoffman and Amanda Malecek. The RWV team was seeded sixth.
NL-S's Kristine Hagedorn and Becky Brisendine, the No. 3 seed, topped Braa and Van Dyk by 6-4 and 7-6 (the tie-breaker went to NL-S by a 7-3 margin) tallies in the quarterfinals.
Benson's Molly Holleman and Sara Murphy posted 6-1 and 6-3 wins over Luverne's Lexi Jauert and Brittany Boeve in an opening-round match in doubles competition.