Pirate Girls Tennis Wins One, Loses One At Section Tourney

The Crookston Pirate Girls Tennis team was tied 3-3 and Emma Borowicz won her match for a 4-3 victory over the Staples-Motley Cardinals in the Section 8A Girls Tennis tournament at Courts Plus in Fargo.
Crookston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match with the first doubles team of Hannah Street and Elysa Christensen (two seniors) winning their match 6-0, 6-0.  “Hannah and Elysa played the best I have seen them play this year,” said Pirate Coach Mike Geffre. “They served well, returned well and it was nice to have our seniors set the standard early and get the win.” The third doubles team of Emma Osborn and Emma Gunderson won their match 7-5, 6-1 and Crookston had the early lead. “That was an interesting match because they were down 4-0 in the first set,” said Coach Geffre. “They battled back to get the win and that was fun to see.”
Staples-Motley picked up their first win at fourth singles with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6 tiebreaker) victory to cut the Pirate lead in half (2-1). The rest of the matches on the court were extremely close and it looked like the match was going to come down to the wire. Crookston got a big win from Hayden Winjum at first singles 6-1 and 7-6 in the second set and a 7-2 tie-breaker to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead.  “For Hayden to win the tie-break was huge for her,” said Coach Geffre. Staples-Motley won the next two matches with victories at second singles and second doubles. The deciding match was third singles with Crookston’s Emma Borowicz taking on Rose Han. Borowicz won the first set and the two were tied at 4-4 in the second set with everybody watching the two finish their match. Emma got behind 5-4, but battled back and the two were tied at 6-6, forcing a tie-breaker. “I was feeling some pressure, but I was trying not to think about it,” said Borowicz after her match. “I was just trying to win because Geff told me this was it.” Emma took a 3-0 lead before her opponent answered with three straight points for a 3-3 tie. Emma scored the next point, followed with an ace on the serve and finished the match with two great points for a 7-3 victory to win her match and give the team a 4-3 victory to advance to the semi-finals later in the day (3:00 p.m. scheduled start).  “It came down to a second set tie-breaker and when you watched how close the first set was and a tie-breaker in the second, you didn’t want to see it go to a third set because it could go either way.  There were two pretty good athletes out there and two competitive kids.  She was the right person to be out there with the match on the line because she is such a competitor,” said Coach Geffre. “It was a big win and a good team effort.  Even in the losses the girls played hard and played well.”
Crookston will play the winner of the #1 seed Park Rapids after they beat #8 seed Roseau 4-3.

Emma Borowicz with a return   Elysa Christensen with a baseline return

Hayden Winjum with a return           Hannah Street             Hannah Lindemoen

SECTION 8A Semi-finals vs Park Rapids

The Crookston Pirate Girls Tennis team lost a marathon match to the Park Rapids Panthers 4-3 in the Section 8A semi-finals played at Courts Plus in Fargo.
Crookston took an early 2-1 lead. The third doubles team of Hannah Lindemoen and Emma Gunderson won their match 6-4, 6-1.  “That was a nice win, especially after we lost to them earlier in the year,” said Pirate Coach Mike Geffre. “The girls picked it up and played well.” The Pirates lost the third singles match 6-0, 6-1 before they bounced back with a 6-2, 6-2 win at second doubles for the early lead. Park Rapids won the second singles match to tie the score at 2-2. Crookston answered with a win at first doubles with Catherine Tiedeman and Emma Borowicz winning their match 6-1, 6-0 and the Pirates had a 3-2 lead in the match. “I had faith in my top two doubles teams because they were part of the tournament team last year,” said Coach Geffre.  “They came out and took care of business and that was nice to see.” Park Rapids won the first singles match with a 6-2, 6-0 victory to tie the match at 3-3 with the fourth singles match the deciding match for a trip to the Section 8A championship match. Halle Winjum trailed in the first set 4-1 before she came back to win the set to take a lead in the match. The second set had a lot of long points and the Park Rapids player won the set to force a third set. The Park Rapids girl took a 5-0 lead in the third set. The sixth game of the set was over 20 minutes long with over 20 dueces and the Park Rapids player had a match point over 10 times. The match had passed the two and a half hour mark and the match finally came to an end when Park Rapids got the match-winning point to win the individual match and win the team match 4-3.   “It was an impressive match for the girls,” said Coach Geffre. “It came down to a long three-set match and there was a lot of excitement and I love the way the girls competed and the way Halle kept battling.  She is a warrior and was playing a senior and Halle never quit and she got after it today.  The whole team went out and played hard today and we lost to a team with eight seniors (out of 10) in the lineup and if anybody deserves to win it, it would be them.  The girls can be proud of their effort today.”
Crookston ends the season with a dual record of 6-17 and will lose two seniors, Elysa Christensen and Hannah Street to graduation. Park Rapids will play the winner of East Grand Forks and Perham in the Championship on Friday at 9:00 a.m.

The Section 8A Individual tournament will start on Friday.

Singles – For the Singles bracket, click here.
#3 – Hayden Winjum vs #14 Rachel Herman (Park Rapids)
#12 – Hannah Street vs #5 Madison Picker (Perham)

Eden Haller with a return   Halle Winjum with a forehand    Emma Osborn 

Catherine Tiedemann lunges for a return   Emma Gunderson with a return

Blood, sweat, and tears – The back of Halle Winjum’s ankle after her 2 and a half hour-plus match