By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne tennis team opened Southwest Conference play by splitting a pair of matches.
The Cardinals lost a one-point decision in Redwood Falls Friday before nipping Marshall by one point at home Tuesday.
Luverne, 4-3 overall, plays in Springfield today before hosting Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Lincoln Friday and Monday respectively.
Luverne 4, Marshall 3
Luverne's veteran players came up big during Tuesday's home win over the Tigers.
Three LHS seniors posted singles wins and a junior led a doubles team to victory in a hard-fought match.
"Our senior leadership showed through in singles," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "Then Jenny (Braa) and Nikki (Van Dyk) played hard through three sets to win our fourth point in doubles."
Van Dyk and Braa played in the No. 1 doubles slot, where they secured a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Gracie Henderson and Amanda Herrmann.
Becky Antoine, Rachel Tofteland and Gabe Van Dyk won two-set matches at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles.
Antoine notched 6-2 and 6-0 wins over Heather Buesing, Tofteland handed Rachel Henderson 6-2 and 7-5 setbacks, and Van Dyk prevailed by 6-1 and 6-1 tallies over Kayla Pruitt.
MarshallÕs Diana Naatz topped Brittany Boeve by 6-2 and 6-3 scores at No. 4 singles.
The TigersÕ No. 2 doubles team of Ellie Ahmann and Nicole St. Aubin saddled Lexi Jauert and Andraya Gacke with a pair of 6-2 setbacks. MarshallÕs Stacy Christopherson and Rachelle Kunde upended Samantha Gacke and Alyssa Klein by 6-1 and 6-4 scores at No. 3.
"The thing I would like to see now is for us to be more aggressive. We've got to start taking it to our opponents instead letting them take it to us," Antoine said.
RWV 4, Luverne 3
The Cardinals came up one point short when they opened Southwest Conference play in Redwood Falls Friday.
The teams split four singles matches, but RWV took two of three doubles tests to win the battle.
"We played really well, especially in singles," said Cardinal coach Antoine.
Tofteland and Gabe Van Dyk notched wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles respectively. Tofteland secured 6-3 and 6-4 victories over Linda Gano. Van Dyk topped Alecia Prins by 6-2 and 7-5 tallies.
RWVÕs Kate Maland downed Antoine by 6-2 and 6-4 scores at No. 1 singles. Host Lisa Goodthunder saddled Boeve with a pair of 6-0 setbacks at No. 4.
Although the Cards went 1-2, Antoine said his doubles teams benefited from two days of practice prior the match.
"Our doubles teams used what we did in practice very well. We worked a lot on our cross-court and alley shots for two days in practice, and we did a much better job. It was good to see that our practice paid off," he said.
Luverne's Braa and Jauert bested Olivia Schoffman and Amanda Malecek by 6-2 and 6-4 tallies at No. 1 doubles.
RWV's Karissa Rothmeier and Kristin Malecha downed Nikki Van Dyk and Samantha Gacke by 6-4 and 6-1 scores at No. 2. Lily Madsen and Devyan Morris posted 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Klein and Andraya Gacke at No. 3.