Luverne’s Patrick Bennett digs up a ball during Friday’s home tennis match against Fairmont. Bennett won in straight sets at No. 2 singles to help the Cardinals snap a six-match losing streak with a 5-2 win over Fairmont.By John RittenhouseThe Luverne tennis team ended a slump by winning three of four matches it played since last Thursday.The Cardinals ended a six-match slide by posting a three-point home win over Fairmont Friday before going 1-1 at the Yellow Medicine East Tournament Saturday in Granite Falls. The Cards nailed down a three-point victory over Martin County West in Sherburn Tuesday.Luverne, 9-10 overall, plays at the Southwest Conference Tournament in Redwood Falls Thursday. The Cardinals will open Section 3A Team Tournament competition Monday at a site to be determined.Luverne 4, MCW 1The Cardinals came out on top during a rain-shortened match played in Sherburn Tuesday.Luverne won four of the five matches completed during the event and sported leads in the final two matches that were rained out.Dusty Antoine, Patrick Bennett and Kyle Fletcher secured victories at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles respectively.Antoine handed Alister Olson 6-2 and 6-0 setbacks, Bennett came back from a four-game deficit to beat Phil Johnson 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-breaker) in the first set of their match before prevailing 6-3 in the second set. Fletcher notched a pair of 6-2 wins over Brad Oelkers.Luverne’s John Kreuch and Chris Vickery posted a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-beaker) victory over Mike Johnson and David Anderson at No. 2 doubles.MCW’s No. 1 team of Matt Harbitz and Andy Schieber downed Steven Althoff and Trevor Maine by 6-3 and 6-2 tallies.Cardinal Derek Boeve won the first set of his No. 4 singles match against Chris Kuehl 6-2 and led 5-1 in the second set before the contest was rained out. Zach Sanderson and David Nelson had a 4-3 lead in the first set of the No. 3 doubles match against Mike Lundquist and Nate Janssen before the match was cancelled.YME tourneyThe Cardinals went 1-1 and placed second during Saturday’s three-team tournament in Granite Falls.Pipestone blanked the Cards 7-0 in the first round. Luverne bounced back to nip YME 4-3 in the finale."It was a cold and windy day to be playing tennis," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "I thought the kids did well considering the conditions."Singles players Dusty Antoine, Bennett and Boeve, and the No. 1 doubles team of Althoff and Maine all won their matches against YME to go 1-1 for the day.After dropping a pair of 6-0 sets to Pipestone’s Florian Brokamp at No. 1 singles, Antoine bounced back to best YME’s Nathan Marland by 6-3 and 6-2 counts.Bennett lost 6-4 and 6-2 decisions to Pipestone’s Mike Janssen before posting 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Brian Lavin at No. 2 singles.Boeve, who lost 6-1 and 6-2 sets to Pipestone’s Jamie Gustavson in the first round, produced what to be the game-winning point when he downed YME’s Jeff Ford 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.Althoff and Maine dropped a pair of 6-1 sets to Pipestone’s Scott Vander Poel and Pat Wieme before posting a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory over YME’s Kyle Henderson and Aaron Smith.Fletcher went 0-2 at No. 3 singles, Kreuch and Nelson went 0-2 at No. 2 doubles and Weston Sawtelle and Sanderson went 0-2 at No. 3 doubles for LHS.Luverne 5, Fairmont 2The Cardinals snapped a six-match losing skid when they bested Fairmont by three points in Luverne Friday.Luverne went 3-1 in singles and 2-1 in doubles during what was a solid performance by the hosts."Every person played well for us," said coach Antoine. "It was one of the better efforts we had all year. All the kids bared down and played well."Dusty Antoine, Bennett and Fletcher posted straight set wins in singles.Antoine topped David Kopischke by 6-3 and 6-2 scores at No. 1, Bennett bested Scott Schaffel by 6-0 and 6-4 scores at No. 2, and Fletcher handed Andy Melchert 6-4 and 6-2 losses at No. 3.Fairmont’s Ted Shaffel beat Chris Vickery 1-6, 7-6 (7-1 in the tie-breaker) and 6-3 at No. 4 singles.Cardinals Althoff and Kreuch secured 6-3 and 7-5 wins over Frean Fame and Brady Schmidt at No. 2 doubles, while Nelson and Sawtelle topped Jeremy Numan and Andrew Evelflin in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 match at No. 3 doubles.Fairmont’s Wade Rosin and Luke Granheim upended Maine and Boeve 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-breaker) and 6-1 at No. 1 doubles.
