By John RittenhouseA slumping Luverne tennis team is experiencing a six-match losing skid after dropping five matches since last Thursday.Luverne dropped a five-point decision in Pipestone Thursday before losing three times at the Benson Tournament Saturday. The Cardinals fell by nine points to Sioux Falls O’Gorman’s junior varsity team in Sioux Falls Monday, and they received a five-point setback in Blue Earth.The 6-9 Cards will try to end the slide when they host Fairmont today.Luverne plays at the Yellow Medicine East Tournament Saturday before taking on Martin County West in Sherburn Tuesday.BE 6, Luverne 1A young and talented Blue Earth team extended Luverne’s losing streak to six straight matches Tuesday in Blue Earth.The Buccaneers swept the four singles matches and went 2-1 in doubles to cap a solid performance."They have a lot of good athletes," said Luverne coach Greg Antoine. "They are a very athletic team that will be good for a while because they are so young."Luverne’s win came at No. 3 doubles, where Weston Sawtelle and John Kreuch secured a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Matt Schulte and Dalton Moore.BE’s Ty Mastin and Ian Johnson posted a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 win over Steven Althoff and Kyle Fletcher at No. 1 doubles, and Jak Willette and Grant Holmseth recorded a 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 win over Chris Vickery and Trevor Maine at No. 2.Two of the four singles matches went three sets as Joe Kuechenmeister notched a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Dusty Antoine at No. 1, and Justin Frey nailed down a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Patrick Bennett at No. 2.BE’s Jordan Becker saddled David Nelson with a pair of 6-1 setbacks at No. 3 singles. Logan Becker bested Derek Boeve by 6-0 and 6-4 scores at No. 3.O’Gorman 9,Luverne 0The Cardinals came away empty when they took on the Sioux Falls O’Gorman junior varsity team in Sioux Falls Monday.The Knights swept six singles matches in straight sets and lost one set while going 3-0 in doubles."It was a real eye-opener," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "They are a very good team. It was fun to play a team from South Dakota. It’s fun to see other players, and how good we could be some day."O’Gorman’s Nola Wiese, John Swanson and Tom Lonin posted a pair of 6-0 victories over Dusty Antoine, Boeve and Nelson at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 singles respectively.Andrew Rance topped Bennett by 6-0 and 6-1 scores at No. 2, Dan English posted 6-2 and 6-0 victories over Fletcher at No. 3, and Matt Finnegan secured 6-1 and 7-5 wins over Vickery at No. 4.Dusty Antoine and Bennett lost the first set (6-1) to Wiese and Rance at No. 1 doubles before tying the match with a 6-2 win in the second set. The O’Gorman team won the tie-breaker by a 7-1 count.English and Finnegan saddled Fletcher and Maine with 6-2 and 6-0 setbacks at No. 2 doubles. Swanson and Lonin bested John Kreuch and Zach Sanderson by 6-1 and 6-4 scores at No. 3.Benson tourneyThe Cardinals ran into some strong competition and came up empty during Saturday’s tournament in Benson.Luverne dropped a tight 4-3 decision to Yellow Medicine East to open the event.Benson handed the Cards a 6-1 setback in the second round, and Cambridge blanked LHS 7-0 in the finale."There were some pretty good teams there," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "We lost three matches, but I think we played better than the scores indicate. It was fun to play against some different teams. It gives us an idea where we are at."Coach Antoine said singles players Dusty Antoine and Nelson played well all day.Antoine posted a pair of 6-2 wins at No. 1 singles against YME’s Nathan Marland in the first round before dropping his next two matches.Nelson won a 6-1, 6-7 (6-8 in the tie-breaker) before wining an 8-6 tie-breaker against YME’s Justin Thomas in the first round. Nelson then dropped his next two matches at No. 4 singles.Fletcher, who went 1-2 at No. 3 singles, split sets with YME’s Jeff Ford before winning the tie-breaker, 8-6. Fletcher’s win accounted for Luverne’s final team point against YME.Luverne’s No. 3 doubles team of Boeve and Weston Sawtelle produced the lone team point against Benson. They topped Russ and Jacob Slaughter by 6-4 and 6-3 tallies.Bennett was winless at No. 2 singles. Steven Althoff played all three matches (one with Maine and two with John Kreuch) at No. 1 doubles, going 0-3. Vickery played in all three matches (one with Boeve and two with Maine), going 0-3 for the day. Matt Kreuch also played at No. 3 doubles along with Sawtelle and Boeve.Pipestone 6, Luverne 1The Cardinals dropped their second match of the season to the Arrows when they entertained their league rivals in a non-conference match.David Nelson posted a win at No. 4 singles for LHS, but the Arrows took three singles matches and swept the doubles matches to prevail by five points."We played better against them than we did the first time," said Cardinal coach Greg Antoine. "It seemed at the end of every good point, they got the point. I think all of our players need to be more patient. They go for the big shot right away instead of picking times to go after it."Nelson recorded 6-4 and 6-2 wins over Jamie Gustafson to account for Luverne’s team point.Pipestone’s Florian Brahnkamp posted 6-0 and 6-2 wins over Dusty Antoine at No. 1 singles, Mike Janssen downed Bennett by 6-4 and 6-2 counts at No. 3, and Damion Weets secured 6-1 and 6-2 victories over Kyle Fletcher at No. 3.Luverne’s Vickery and Trevor claimed a 6-3 win in the first set at No. 2 doubles before dropping a pair of 6-3 decisions in the second and third sets to Casey Carmody and Paul Williamson.Pipestone’s Scott Vander Poel and Pat Wieme nailed down 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Althoff and Boeve at No. 1 doubles. Aaron Prunty and Dave Janssen bested Sanderson and Sawtelle by 6-0 and 6-2 tallies at No. 3.
