Match Score: River Valley – 2, Blue Earth – 5
Singles:
No. 1 – Addison Armstrong (Blue Earth) def. Taylor Berkner (River Valley), 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 – Brissa Hernandez (River Valley) def. Olivia Dutton (Blue Earth), 6-3, 7-5
No. 3 – Grace Hanson (Blue Earth) def. Candela Pliego-Hernandez (River Valley), 6-1, 6-4
No. 4 – Kiera Lafferty (River Valley) def. Abbey Lorenz (Blue Earth), 6-2, 6-1
Doubles:
No. 1 – Carol Schrader / Ashlyn Klinkner (Blue Earth) def. Erika Wells / Jillian Mays (River Valley), 6-3, 6-0
No. 2 – Mckinley Hanson / Lauren Survis (Blue Earth) def. Anna Rossbach / Gabby Anderson (River Valley), 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 – Addison Prescher / Erin Prescher (Blue Earth) def. Chloe Okerman / Emma Contreras-Ramirez (River Valley), 6-1, 6-1
Coach Comments: It was a hard fought match to end our team season against Blue Earth. Brissa Hernandez and Kiera Lafferty had great matches to get us some points out of the singles lineup but in the end it was just not our day. Congrats to Blue Earth!
On 10/6, we took this season’s top 6 players to the Individual Section Tournament at the Swanson Tennis Center at Gustavus in Saint Peter. Here are the results of Day1 of this section tournament:
Our Top Doubles team of Candela Pliego-Hernandez and Kiera Lafferty ended up losing to a Maple River team that advanced to the Final Four:
Madison Ward/Kelsey Jaeger (Maple River) def. Kiera Lafferty/Candela Pliego-Hernandez (River Valley) 6-4, 6-1
Our Second Doubles Team of Erika Wells and Jillian Mays lost to eventual Final Four contenders from Blue Earth:
Olivia Dutton/Grace Hanson (Blue Earth) def. Erika Wells/Jillian Mays (River Valley) 6-1, 6-0
Taylor Berkner and Brissa Hernandez were the top 2 singles competitors from River Valley. Both had great days and advance to the Final Four:
Round 1: Taylor Berkner, seeded #2, received a first-round BYE
Round 2: Taylor Berkner (River Valley) defeats Maya Kulseth (Saint James) 6-1, 6-2
Brissa Hernandez received the #5 seed
Round 1: Brissa Hernandez (River Valley) defeats Brooke Reuter (Maple River) 6-1, 6-0
Round 2: Brissa Hernandez (River Valley) defeats Lily Ciske (Saint James) 6-7, 6-0, 6-3
Coach’s Comments (Brandon Andrews): It was a great day for our team at the Individual Section Tournament! Sadly, some player’s seasons and careers came to an end. Erika Wells, Kiera Lafferty, and Candela Pliego-Hernandez all had their careers as River Valley Wildcats come to an end with losses in the Doubles Tournament. Jillian Mays will be back with the Wildcats as a senior next season. Both Taylor Berkner and Brissa Hernandez made it through the first two rounds and advance to the Final Four of the Section Tournament! Such an amazing accomplishment for our team and those two girls to have 2 players from one team advance to the Section Semifinals. Both will play on Wednesday, October 11th, with chances to advance to the State Tournament! Those two girls are more than deserving of these accomplishments. They’ve put in an incredible amount of work to put themselves in this position and I am so proud of both of them. Regardless of what happens on Wednesday, this was a season that I’ll never forget!