Card girls' tennis: St. Cloud Tech tops Alexandria

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The Cardinal tennis team dropped a 5-2 match to St. Cloud Tech last Thursday to fall to 11-4 on the season.

Alexandria got wins at first and second doubles but couldn’t pick up a win at any other position.

“We felt going into this match that we had a good chance to pick up a win,” head coach Dave Ronning said. “We felt we had to win at all the doubles spots and get a singles win somewhere. We also felt that the singles win could come from any of the four spots, so we felt good about our chances of pulling out a team win.”

Brianna Ebert and Rebecca Lukes were up to the task at first doubles. They won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, while Kristen Schmidt and Ellie Bergstrand did the same, 6-2, 6-3.

“Those two doubles teams set the tone for the night by coming out and playing at a high level right from the start. When you play a good team like Tech, you have to come out firing on all cylinders and that just wasn’t the case tonight as none of our singles players could win a first set.”

Katie Basiago led 5-4 in the first set at fourth singles. Tech’s Lexi Portz then went on to win the next eight games to take the match, 7-5, 6-0.

“I feel our girls played a bit too conservative against a tough opponent,” Ronning said. “If we are to go to the next level and expect to beat the better teams in the area, we have to have the confidence in ourselves and the willingness to take some chances to elevate our games.”

MATCH RESULTS

St. Cloud Tech 5, Alexandria 2

SINGLES – No. 1 – Rachel Zwiener (T) def. Jenna Galstad, 6-2, 6-4; No. 2 – Kristin Wurm (T) def. Rachel Astrup, 6-4, 6-0; No. 3 – Leah Wurm (T) def. Tyra Quitmeyer, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; No. 4 – Lexi Portz (T) def. Katie Basiago, 7-5, 6-0

DOUBLES – No. 1 – Brianna Ebert/Rebecca Lukes (A) def. Mickey Moran/Katie Haus, 6-3, 6-2; No. 2 – Kristen Schmidt/Ellie Bergstrand (A) def. Greta Zimmerman/Sam Bowman, 6-2, 6-3; No. 3 – Megan Larkin/Sam Eisennech (T) def. Kristen Sjostrand/Brittany Holm, 6-2, 6-4

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