Luverne High School tennis player Nikki Van Dyk strikes a shot during Monday’s home tennis match against Marshall. The visiting Tigers topped the Cardinals 5-2 in a Southwest Conference clash.By John RittenhouseThe Luverne girls’ tennis team went 2-1 while playing three matches since Thursday, Sept. 18.The Cardinals nipped Pipestone by one point in Pipestone Thursday before capping a 2-2 Southwest Conference season with a three-point home loss to Marshall Tuesday.Luverne then posted a three-point home win over Sleepy Eye Tuesday.The 5-6 Cards play at the Southwest Conference Tournament in Redwood Falls today before ending the regular season in Springfield Monday.Luverne 5, SE 2The Cardinals came out on the winning end of a three-point decision when they took on Sleepy Eye in their final home match of the campaign Tuesday.Luverne won three of four singles matches and went 2-1 in doubles to win the contest handily."The girls who won at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles found out that being aggressive can be a good thing," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "All three of our doubles teams really played well, too."Nikki Van Dyk, Alyssa Klein and Kaitlyn Deragisch all posted singles wins.Van Dyk secured a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Allie Seifert at No. 2 singles. Klein notched a pair of 6-3 wins over Andrea Bruggeman at No. 3. Deragisch posted 6-0 and 6-4 wins against Katherine Busch at No. 4.Luverne’s Lindsey Severtson and Heidi Sandbulte topped Kelleigh Treback and Jill Meyer by 6-2 and 6-3 scores at No. 3 doubles, while Cardinals Samantha Gacke and Brittany Boeve recorded 6-2 and 6-4 victories over Meghan Anderson and Sandy Deibele at No. 1.Samantha Gacke was playing doubles for the first time this year thanks to senior Jenny Braa, who decided to play in the No. 1 singles slot for her teammate. Braa came up on the short end of 6-1 scores against Sarah Ibberson.SE’s Sandy Deibele and Meghan Anderson downed Andraya Gacke and Jessica Klein at No. 2 doubles by 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4 in the tie-breaker) scores.Marshall 5, Luverne 2The Cardinals slipped to 2-2 in conference play with a three-point home loss to the Tigers Monday.Marshall swept all three doubles matches from LHS and split the singles battles with the hosts to win the match."If you look at the scores, you see that we won a lot of games," said Cardinal coach Antoine. "We’re just a little too inconsistent to win the sets. We’ve just got to get a few more points in a few more games, and we’ll be OK. That will come with experience."Luverne’s Alyssa Klein and Deragisch came up with points at No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Klein notched 6-3 and 6-4 wins over Gracie Henderson, and Deragisch topped Jessie Henderson by 6-0 and 6-2 scores.Marshall’s Rachel Henderson topped Samantha Gacke by 6-2 and 6-3 scores at No. 1 singles. Kayla Pruitt bested Van Dyk by 6-2 and 6-1 counts at No. 2.The Tigers took all three doubles matches in straight sets.Heather Buesing and Amanda Herrmann notched 7-5 and 6-3 wins over Braa and Boeve at No. 1. Nicole and Courtney St. Aubin upended Jessica Klein and Sandbulte by 6-3 and 6-4 tallies at No. 2, and Rachelle Kunde and Kristi Clark prevailed by 6-3 and 6-4 scores against Andraya Gacke and Severtson at No. 3.Luverne 4, Pipestone 3The Cardinals won their second straight league match when they topped the Arrows by one point in Pipestone Thursday.Going 1-3 in singles, the Cards needed their doubles teams to come up big in Pipestone. The squads answered the challenge by sweeping all three doubles tests to ice the match for LHS."It was the strength of our doubles teams that did it for us," said Cardinal coach Antoine. "Actually, everyone played well. I can’t remember a match when all four singles matches went three sets, but it happened. At the beginning of the season I said we were a team that needed to get some experience and would get better as the season goes on. Thursday’s match was a good case in point."Luverne’s No. 1 doubles team of Braa and Boeve had to come from behind to beat Allison Hubers and Christy Cunningham. The Pipestone squad took Game 1 by a 7-5 score, but the Cards rallied to win the next two games by 7-5 and 6-3 tallies.Luverne’s Jessica Klein and Sandbulte notched a pair of 6-2 wins over Amy Keller and Tracy Eeten at No. 2 doubles. Andraya Gacke and Severtson rolled to 6-0 and 6-4 victories against Nargis Rabin and Britt Sendelbeck at No. 3.Luverne’s singles win came from Alyssa Klein in the No. 3 slot, who topped Amber Baustian 7-5, 6-7 (5-7 in the tiebreaker) and 6-3.Pipestone’s Tory Hess topped Samantha Gacke, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-breaker) at No. 1, Abby Brody bested Van Dyk, 5-7, 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2, and Lauren Jones upended Deragisch 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 4.
