The Becker Bulldog girls tennis team competed in team and individual section play last weekend in Sartell. The team managed to make it to the semi-finals before losing to Bemidji.
The doubles team of Olivia Hultgren and Katie Suckert took third in individual doubles play.
Team Sections
After beating Apollo/Cathedral 6-1 in the morning and Monticello 6-1 in the afternoon of Oct. 3, Becker faced the #1-seeded Bemidji Lumberjacks last Friday in Sartell.
The first four matches on the court were all up a set and looking strong, but the #3 doubles team of Kayla Wilken and Shelby Huebert and #2 doubles team of Ellie Tabako and Maddie Anderson had tought battles in which they ended up losing to their Bemidji counterparts.
Aundria Howard (#4 singles) and Ashley Souba (#3 singles) came away with convincing wins, playing some of their best tennis for the season.
Bemidji had very strong #1 and # 2 singles players and Hultgren gave her best but was still overcome by Bemidji’s top player, 2-6,1-6. Likewise with #2 singles, where Suckert battled hard but fell 3-6, 2-6.
At that point, Bemidji had officially captured the win with four points.
The #1 Becker doubles team of Rachel Lukkarila and Lindsey Lorette played a tough match and came away with the third set win. The Bulldogs lost the match by a close 4-3 score.
“The girls played well, and if we played them the next day it could be a 5-2 win for us,” said Head Coach Nathan Bucher. “It was a very close match with both sides putting up great effort. But today Bemidji played well and came out on top.”
St. Cloud Tech eventually beat Bemidji in the finals, 6-1.
Individual Sections
The #1 Becker doubles team of Hultgren and Suckert played well and beat Allison Okeson and Kora Torkelson from Thief River Falls 6-4, 6-2.
Next, the girls faced the Bemidji team made up of their number 1 singles player (Finja Mahl) and half of one of their players from their # 1 doubles team (Alexis Konecne).
It was a very tight match with many games going to deuce. But the Bemidji team edged out the Bulldogs 3-6, 3-6 to move to the finals against St. Cloud Tech.
The Bulldog team moved to play the third place match in which they played a strong Brainerd doubles team that had just fought hard with the Tech team and lost 6-3, 6-1. Hultgren and Suckert came out ready to play and they played some of their best tennis together and won the match 6-3, 6-1.
The wait was on to see how the Bulldogs duo would finish. If the Bemidji team could beat Tech, Hultgren and Suckert would get to play the Tech team to decide the true second to see who goes to state.
Very few thought the match between Bemidji and Tech could have been closer when it entered a third set but it did, going all the way to 6-6 and entering a tie-break. But in the end, the Tech Tigers came away with the win, eliminating Hultgren and Suckert from going to state.
“It was a great year for Becker girls tennis,” said Bucher. “The girls became very close as a team, doing things together outside of tennis and we all learned a lot. We will dearly miss our seniors next year but, we have some strong young players that are excited to play.”
