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The Girls Tennis Big 9 Conference Tournament was on Saturday, October 1st in Rochester. The Northfield Raiders had 12 Varsity players at 4 different outdoor sites and eventually ended the day at a 5th site when they got rained out and had to move indoors to the Rochester Athletic Club (RAC)
#1 Singles: Marie Labenski had a great first match. She beat the #1 player from Austin who she’d lost to earlier in the season so she was really happy to get that win!
#2 Singles: Maya Deschamp played really well in her first match and she also played an opponent in her second match that she’d lost to earlier in the season. This time she went to three sets, ultimately losing in a third set tiebreaker, but she was really pleased with her match.
#3 Singles: Izzy Balvin also had a couple of good matches, winning her first and then losing a close one to Winona in her second match of the day.
#4 Singles: Lucy Boland was seeded high enough to have a BYE for her first round. Then she went on to play Winona, who she beat in 3 sets. She lost her next match which put her into the bracket to play for 3rd place. She had just started that match when it started raining so she had to move indoors to the RAC. She finished the match there, another 3 set match which unfortunately she lost in a tie-breaker. Lucy is such a tough competitor and she played her very best but just fell short and ended up in 4th place.
#1 Doubles: Gabbi Grant and Courtney Graff only lost one Conference match this season, to Rochester Mayo. So they were the 2nd seeded team, and therefore had a BYE for their first round, then went on to dominate Austin and JM. They played Mayo in the Final/Championship Match. They lost the first set 2-6 and really played their best and raised their level to win that second set 6-2. They went to a third set tiebreaker which was close the entire time, but unfortunately Northfield ended up short, losing the tiebreaker at 7-10. Like some of our singles players they also improved their score compared to the first time they played that team during the regular season. Gabbi & Courtney ended in 2nd place with a medal.
#2 Doubles: Natalia Rasmussen and Alison Huang lost their first match and then went into the Consolation bracket. They went on to win their next 3 matches to ultimately win the Consolation! In their Consolation final match they were down 1-7 and had an unbelievable comeback to win 9-7!! They ended the day as Consolation Champs.
#3 Doubles: Grace LaCanne and Meha Hnatyszyn were also seeded and had a BYE for their first round. They beat Red Wing in the second round but then lost to Mayo in the third, putting them into the bracket playing for 3rd place. This match was rained out so they completed their match indoors at the RAC. Grace and Meha have improved so much and played the best they’ve played all season in this 3rd place match, which they won over Winona, earning the third place medal.
#4 Doubles: Cora McBroom and Lauren Holz played some exhibition matches. They beat Red Wing, lost to Mayo and ended the day with a win over Mankato East.
