For the third straight season, Becker Bulldog tennis player Zach Bengtson earned a spot in the MSHSL Class AA State Tennis individual state championship tournament.

Last Thursday, Bengtson played great tennis to finish second in the Section and secure his third straight trip to the big dance.

Bengtson started the day with a 6-0, 6-0 win over his opponent from St. Cloud, and then he lost in three sets to his opponent from Monticello.

In the third place match, he came back and beat the #1 player from STMA to force a true second match (meaning the player that had lost in the finals had not played Bengtson yet in the tournament and therefore the “true” second match).

In Bengtson’s fourth match of the day, after having played over 70 total games, he defeated his opponent, the #1 player from Sartell, in straight sets to claim his trip to state.

Bengtson is currently 25-6 on the season, which ranks him number one in the state of Minnesota for wins this season.

The individual state tournament starts June 6 at the UofM.

Landon Peterson and Sawyer Brown, meanwhile, just missed out on a trip to state in the doubles portion of the section tourney.

The dynamic duo opened with a win over their St. Cloud opponent in the first round, before falling to the eventual section champs fro Alexandria in round two.  Next, they defeated the #1 doubles team from Monticello and earned a spot in the true second match against Buffalo.  In that match, they fell 1-6, 4-6 to finish in third place and just one spot shy of a state tourney berth.