VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – On a crisp fall afternooon, the Valley City Hi-Liner boys tennis team advanced in the Eastern Dakota Conference Tournament with a 5-0 win over West Fargo in a play-in match.

The Hi-Liners now 5-6 on the year, will travel to Grand Forks Tuesday to face the second seeded Red River Roughriders in the quarterfinals. Red River defeated Valley City 8-1 last Tuesday.

Here are the results and Coach Nielson’s thoughts:

#7 VC 5
#10 West Fargo 0
Singles:
1. Blake Triebold defeated Preston Elhard 6-1, 6-0
2. Seth Zeltinger defeated Mansib Rahman 6-1, 6-0
3. Casey Kruger defeated Matthew Mondry 6-1, 6-1

Doubles:
1. Kai Kringlie/Derek Bear defeated Sam Ruona/John Sikorski 6-3, 6-2
2. Ethan Bear/Max Magnuson defeated John Johnson/Jadon Chase 6-1, 6-1

Thoughts:

Today was a good day for us. It was a cold, windy day. We needed to figure out how to play the wind, keep our minds straight, and finish our strokes. We all played within ourselves and played to win. Blake, Seth, and Casey executed their game plans and played each point to win. Nice work.

Ethan and Max played the smart shot and hit solid attacking strokes. They put their volleys away as well. We are working on positioning and they are improving. Today’s win marks the first varsity dual victory for both Ethan and Max. Awesome job fellas!

Derek and Kai played together for the first time today. They are playing together in the EDC doubles tournament on Friday and Saturday. They worked on their communication and positioning together. This was a good match to warm-up with before this weekend.

We are at Red River on Tuesday for the quarterfinals of the EDC tournament. They beat us 8-1 last Tuesday. As the underdogs, we need to go there, play loose, and leave it all on the court and let the chips fall where they may.