By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne tennis team continued its winning ways by posting a pair of road wins since last Thursday.
The Cardinals rolled to a five-point win in Springfield Thursday before toppling Worthington by three points in Worthington Monday.
Luverne, 8-3 overall, will take a five-game winning streak into today's home match against Pipestone Area. The Cards travel to Sleepy Eye and Marshall Friday and Monday respectively.
Luverne 5,
Worthington 2
The Cardinals got the better of the Trojans in what was a tightly contested battle in Worthington Monday.
Two of Luverne's five team points came from three-set victories. LHS also lost a three-set match in doubles.
"There were a lot of good, close matches," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "Like they have most of the season, our first three singles players kind of cruised to wins. Samantha Gacke won in three sets at No. 4 singles in match that lasted nearly three hours. Our No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams played 36- and 32-game matches (respectively)."
With Gacke topping Kassi Buysman by 6-3, 6-7 and 6-4 counts at No. 4, Luverne was able to sweep WHS in singles play.
Becky Antoine downed Lisa Jackson 6-4 and 6-3 at No. 1, Rachel Tofteland upended Lindsay Meier by 6-2 and 6-3 scores at No. 2, and Gabe Van Dyk secured 6-3 and 6-2 wins over Lindsey Radloff at No. 3.
Luverne's doubles win game from the No. 3 team of Andraya Gacke and Alyssa Klein, who prevailed 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 against Traci Nelson and Joann Loosbrock.
Worthington's Rachel Kohler and Shelby Morrow won a hard-fought 6-7, 7-6, 4-6 match from Lexi Jauert and Brittany Boeve at No. 2 doubles.
Trojans Nadine Wolf and Megan Ahlquist bested Jenny Braa and Nikki Van Dyk by 6-4 and 7-5 scores at No. 1 doubles.
Luverne 6,
Springfield 1
The Cardinal girls recorded their fourth consecutive victory by topping the Tigers by five points in Springfield Thursday.
After making some lineup changes that seemed to work out, and working some things in practice that should make the Cardinals better, LHS coach Antoine feels things continue to improve for the players and their performances.
"We switched Brittany Boeve from No. 4 singles to No. 2 doubles, and we moved Samantha Gacke into the No. 4 singles spot. It seemed to work out very well. Samantha won her first varsity singles match, and Brittany and Lexi Jauert played well as a team while winning at No. 2 doubles. The other nice thing is that you can see the players are putting some of the practice things into the games," he said.
Gacke, who recorded 6-3 and 6-1 wins in her match against Amy Wellner, played a role in Luverne's 4-0 sweep in singles competition.
Antoine notched a pair of 6-2 wins over Amy Moe at No. 1, Tofteland secured 6-4 and 6-2 wins over Rachel Roiger at No. 2, and Van Dyk was a 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 victor against Ali Tews at No. 3.
Jauert and Boeve won a three-set match (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) over Krista Hagert and Michelle Tomschin at No. 2 doubles, while Cardinals Braa and Nikki Van Dyk saddled Amanda Davidson and Mindy Lipetzki with a pair of 6-1 setbacks at No. 1.
Springfield's point came from the No. 3 doubles team of Emily Carruthers and Ann Roiger, who recorded 6-2 and 6-3 wins over Klein and Andraya Gacke.