By John RittenhouseThe Luverne tennis team upped its season record to 16-4 after competing in a pair of events since Saturday.The Cardinals went 2-0 to win the Yellow Medicine East Tournament in Granite Falls Saturday. Luverne swept a seven-point home match from Martin County West Tuesday.Luverne will compete at the Southwest Conference Tournament in Redwood Falls today. The Cards will host a Section 3A Team Tournament match Monday, but the opponent has yet to be named.Luverne 7, MCW 0A day featuring nice weather seemed to sit well with the Cardinals when they entertained the Mavericks Tuesday.Luverne dominated play during a windless outing that featured temperatures in the low 70s."It was a gorgeous day for tennis," said LHS coach Greg Antoine. "The kids felt good and loose, and they played really well."Luverne secured straight set wins in three of four singles matches.Dusty Antoine coasted to 6-0 and 6-1 victories over Matt Harbitz at No. 1, Patrick Bennett posted a pair of 6-0 wins over Josh Richter at No. 2, and Derek Boeve prevailed by 6-1 and 6-3 counts against Nate Janssen at No. 3.Luverne’s David Nelson dropped his first set (3-6) to Mike Lundquist at No. 4 singles, but the Cardinal bounced back to take sets two and three by 6-4 and 6-2 tallies.Steven Althoff and Brandon Deragisch secured a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreaker) win over Chris Kuehl and David Anderson at No. 1 doubles. John Kreuch and Kyle Fletcher nailed down 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker) and 6-4 victories over Mike Johnson and Nate Scheiber at No. 2. Chris Vickery and Nick Heronimus topped Cole Wohlers and Lucas Schwager by 6-2 scores at No. 3.YME tourneyThe Cardinals won two straight matches to take the title during Saturday’s three-team tournament in Granite Falls.Luverne nipped Pipestone 4-3 in the first round before coasting to a 7-0 win over host Yellow Medicine East in the finale.Luverne’s doubles teams came up big during the tournament. The Cardinal squads, which have compiled a 45-12 record this season, won all six of their matches Saturday."Our doubles teams continue to play very well," said Cardinal coach Antoine. "Our doubles players are much more experienced than some of the other teams we’ve been playing, and we keep on winning."Althoff and Deragisch played at No. 1 doubles. They beat Pipestone’s Richie Pederson and Greg Mitchell by 6-1 and 6-2 scores before posting 6-1 and 6-0 wins over YME’s Brett Jacobsen and Clark Christian.Kreuch and Fletcher won both of their matches at No. 2 doubles. They beat Pipestone’s Pavel Nikolov and Nick Wieme by 6-0 and 6-1 scores. After losing the first five games to YME’s Lee Cherveny and Colin Bennett, Kreuch and Fletcher won 12 straight games to secure a 7-5, 6-0 victory.Trevor Maine and Heronimus went 3-0 at No. 3 doubles. They notched 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Pipestone’s Erik Henrickson and Chad Vander Poel before posting a pair of 6-0 victories against YME’s Eric Danielowski and Barry Jacobson.Boeve went 2-0 at No. 3 singles for LHS. He topped Pipestone’s David Janssen by 6-3 and 7-5 tallies before notching a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over YME’s Eric Dubbelde.Dusty Antoine, Bennett and Nelson went 1-1 at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 singles respectively.
