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N.D. (NewsDakota.com)- Valley City girls’ tennis will return to state after going 2-1 in The EDC Dual Tournament Thursday in Fargo. The Hi-Liners started the day defeating Davies 3-2 to move to the championship semifinals. Going up against the defending state champion Sheyenne Mustangs Valley City was downed 4-1. In their qualifying match The Hi-Liners roared back to sweep Fargo South 5-0 and move on to state as a team. Valley City was awarded the 4th seed out of the east, they play No 1 seed Minot in the first round of the dual tournament Thursday in Grand Forks. The EDC tournament continues Friday and Saturday with the individual tournament.
Quarterfinals:
Valley City 3
Fargo Davies 2
Singles
1. Reagan Ingstad lost to Jenna Forknell 7-5, 7-5
2. Cali Halgrimson beat Ishika Gupta 6-4, 6-4
3. Hannah Aberle lost to Habiba Heshmat 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
1. Breanna McDonald/Angela Larson beat Maria Wanzek/Emily Stenhjem 6-1, 6-3
2. Hannah Dockter/Kallie Brandt beat Katie Lee/Kalea Blanchard 6-4, 7-5
Semifinals:
Valley City 1
West Fargo Sheyenne 4
Singles
1. Dockter lost to Monti Knewtson 6-0, 6-0
2. Kayla Triebold lost to Preeti Chemiti 6-1, 6-1
3. Katie Clark lost to Pooja Chemiti 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
1. Ingstad/Halgrimson beat Mimi Gu/Liv Dobrinz 6-2, 6-2
2. McDonald/Larson lost to Annie McIntosh/Miranda Sommerfeld 6-4, 6-2
State Qualifier:
Valley City 5
Fargo South 0
Singles
1. Ingstad beat Isabel Thiner 6-1, 6-1
2. Halgrimson beat Claire Johnson 6-4, 6-1
3. Aberle beat Lynna Ngo 6-0, 6-2
Doubles
1. McDonald/Larson beat Arianna Harmon/Kelsie Elliott 6-4, 6-0
2. Dockter/Brandt beat Ellie Hempel/Julia Youngs 6-4, 6-2
Coach’s Comments
The big match of the day was the first match against Davies. We were the 5 seed and they were the 4 as they beat us in the regular season by a score of 7-2. The winner of the match should state qualify fairly easily while the loser would have to work their way back to play the 3 seed, Shanley, in the state qualifier. We knew that we were favored in one match, underdogs in another, and the other three were coin flips. Our players stepped up, played confident, and won this match.
Reagan beat Forknell in the regular season. Forknell though is a player that has all the shots. I use the phrase when describing Jenna’s game ‘You don’t beat her; She either beats you or beats herself.’ Today, Jenna found her game, stayed mentally tough, and beat Reagan. It was her match – but on the bright side, we don’t have to deal with her next year as she is a senior. 😉
At two singles, Cali lost to Ishika in the regular season in a shortened match due to darkness. Cali kept the ball deep, stayed consistent, and move her around. Cali avenged that loss playing excellent, smart tennis. She seemed to keep winning games when I wasn’t around, so I stayed away and Cali figured out that match on her own! Good work!
Hannah Aberle was supposed to be beat soundly as it was our #6 versus their #3. Hannah didn’t care about rankings and who was supposed to win, Hannah just went out and played tennis. She angled her shots and stayed positive. Hannah won the first set, but Habiba upped her game and came back to beat Hannah in three sets. It was still a great match for Hannah!
In doubles, Breanna and Angela both have figured out how to play the game in the last couple weeks and took out Maria and Emily in quick fashion. Both are using angles, poaching, and hitting consistently. We were the favorites in that match and we played like it through the end.
The match hinged on Kallie’s and Hannah’s match. I don’t think they knew this at the time, but they just went out and played. In both sets they were down. In fact, Kallie said that she didn’t know how we won the match as it seemed like we were down the whole time. Well…when the pressure was on, we just kept playing consistent and kept moving our feet and kept doing the right things. That lead to very good tennis which lead to winning their match and the overall match. This was an amazing team victory. (Side note – Davies did go on to play Shanley and lost 3-2 in the qualifying match.)
In the semifinals, West Fargo Sheyenne is a very good team. We stacked our line-up to give us the best shot of winning two matches out of five and we still only could muster one out of five. I thought they had a fantastic shot of winning the EDC championship, but Red River took them out to win the championship. Kayla Triebold got the call to play #2 singles in this round and took two games off of an All-State player. It was the best match I’ve seen Kayla play. Also, Katie Clark played #3 singles and played excellent, smart points against Pooja. Good job!
For the state qualifier against Fargo South, we went back to the line-up that we used in the opening round. In the regular season, we beat South 9-0, but that was without their #2 in the line-up. Today, they had their #2 player. I knew this could be a trap match for us, so we ensured we warmed up just like we did in the morning and also did our routine and had the same discussion we had before the morning match. We started well in all matches but #1 doubles. #1 doubles got down 1-2 in the first set and then only lost 2 out of the next 14 games! Everyone else took care of business in quick order.
Reagan finished first and about fifteen minutes later, all the other matches finished almost together with VC winning every match to state qualify! Our players were excited to say the least.
With graduating three out of our top 7 players, our injuries and illnesses, being the five seed in the tourney – state qualifying should have been out of reach. Our players though are tough – mentally and physically. They bounce back. They play every point to win. They don’t care if they are supposed to win or lose, they just play. They can make adjustments on the court. They are coachable and great young adults. I’m proud of each and everyone of you!
STATE BABY!! For the 5th year in a row for Hi-Liner girls tennis! WOW!!
Next action is the individual regional tournament Friday and Saturday in Fargo. In singles, Breanna, Angela, and Katie are all playing tomorrow morning at Island Park. Hannah/Hannah and Reagan/Cali will play doubles at Courts Plus tomorrow. Reagan/Cali earned the #1 seed in the doubles tournament while Breanna earned the #9 seed in singles. Top 8 in singles and doubles goes to state for the individual tournament.