CROOKSTON GIRL’S TENNIS ADVANCES TO STATE WITH WIN OVER STAPLES-MOTLEY

The #9 ranked and #3 seed Crookston Pirate Girl’s Tennis beat the #5 ranked and #1 seed Staples-Motley 5-2 in the Section 8A championship at Courts Plus in Fargo. The loss was the first of the year for Staples-Motley. Coming into the season, the Pirates knew they would be without their top player as Halle Winjum suffered an ACL injury and wouldn’t be able to compete in her senior year. Crookston knew they had tremendous team depth, and they proved it as they dominated all three of their section tournament matches while beating the #5 ranked Cardinals and #7 ranked Theif River Falls!!

CROOKSTON vs STAPLES-MOTLEY
Crookston came into the match with a bit of extra energy after turning in two outstanding performances on Thursday. Another reason was the Pirates were looking for revenge after losing to Staples-Motley in the section championship last year by a 4-3 score. The Pirates also took the Staples-Motley coach seeding them outside the top four teams personally and used that to fuel them even more.
Staples-Motley started the match with a victory at first singles. The #6 ranked Lauren Rutten cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Emma Gunderson to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Staples-Motley proved what everybody knew, they are very good at first and second singles, and the Cardinal’s Ronnie Noska beat Crookston’s Brekken Tull 6-2, 6-1.
Crookston picked up their first win of the match with an impressive performance at first doubles as Kaylie Clauson and Addie Fee won a hard-fought back-and-forth battle in the first set while earning a 6-4 victory. Fee and Clauson were impressive in the second set as they pulled away for a 6-2 victory to win the match and bring Crookston within a 2-1 deficit with four matches left.
A few minutes later, Crookston’s third doubles team of Ashlyn Bailey and Coral Brekken played a solid and consistent match to beat Staples-Motley 6-3, 6-3 to tie the match at 2-2.
A few minutes after the third doubles match, Isabelle Smith finished an outstanding effort in her third singles match to beat Jaida Holst 6-3, 6-3 to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
The final two matches on the courts were fourth singles with Paige Abrahamson and the second doubles team of Georgia Sanders and Morgan Nelson. Crookston needed one of them to win their match to advance to the state tournament.
The second doubles match was incredibly close, with Sanders and Nelson winning the first set 6-4 and then winning a nail-biter (for the fans and players not playing) in the second set 7-6 to give Crookston the 4-2 lead and the victory which clinched their spot in the state tournament. Abrahamson continued the strong Pirate showing as she won a hard-fought first set 7-6 before pulling away for a 6-2 second set victory.
Crookston won the match 5-2.

Crookston improves to 16-5 on the year and advances to the Minnesota State Girls Tennis Tournament on Tuesday, October 24, at Ree-Sweatt Tennis Center in Minneapolis. Staples-Motley ends their season with a 17-1

COACH GINA GUNDERSON’S COMMENTS ARE BELOW

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