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Friday, September 25, 2009

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Warriors smash Spuds

Girls' tennis

By MIKE BIALKA

Sports Editor

After having won six Central Lakes Conference meets to start the season the unbeaten Brainerd Warriors needed to know where they stood against a Section 8-2A opponent.

They found out Thursday with a convincing 7-0 victory over the Moorhead Spuds.

Courtney Tusler served during her No. 2 doubles match against the Moorhead Spuds. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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Brainerd's Taylor Headlee, Mikinzee Salo and Briana Rademacher lost a combined five games in winning their singles matches. Mackayla Headlee, at No. 4 singles, had the most difficult match, requiring three sets before persevering 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The doubles teams of Zoe Houle-Kayla Kramer, Sam Kletscher-Courtney Tusler and Kathryn Chandler-Katie Southard combined to lose just seven games.

Warriors 7, Moorhead 0

The key: Brainerd won six matches in straight sets.

Overall: Brd 7-0

Next: Brainerd in Central Lakes Conference tournament at St. Cloud 9 a.m. Saturday.

"We'll see Moorhead in the subsections Oct. 13," Warriors coach Ellen Fussy. "I'm glad we got to see them. I think the only team we will not see before subsections is Detroit Lakes. We've seen everybody, or will see everybody, before we play subsections.

"Everybody had a good day. Briana Rademacher stepped up. It was the first time she ever played No. 3 singles and she handled it very nicely. She's a worker. She's going to outlast you. That's what she did at the No. 3 spot today.

"The other kids, we talk about playing your best, no matter who the competition is. I think they stepped up and played their best and did the little things right that counted."

Zoe Houle returned a shot Thursday during her No. 1 doubles match against the Moorhead Spuds. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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Kletscher and Tusler, at No. 2 doubles, remained unbeaten with a 6-4, 6-1 win.

"We played OK today," Kletscher said. "We had problems with our serves and volleys, stuff like that, but we figured out how to cut down our errors and just pulled it off."

Tusler said she and Tusler have developed chemistry by playing together in offseason tournaments.

"Sam and I play really well together because if one of us is having a down day we can help pick the other one up," Tusler said. "We help (each other) figure out what we're doing wrong so that we can cut down on our errors and try to play better together as a team. We really keep each other going, keep our energy up."

Fussy also was pleased with the energy shown by Chandler and Southard.

"Our No. 3 doubles played really well," she said. "They came off a hard loss at Alexandria. We worked hard with them (Wednesday). Today, they turned it around and played like we know they can play."

Next up for the Warriors is the conference tournament Saturday at St. Cloud Apollo. It's an individual tournament in which players accumulate points to determine the team score.

"Our lineup will not be the current lineup that we play head-to-head," Fussy said. "We're going to look at different players playing a little doubles, and pull some doubles players into singles."

Brainerd 7, Moorhead 0

Singles

No. 1: Taylor Headlee (B) def. Emma Connell 6-0, 6-0

No. 2: Mikinzee Salo (B) def. Ceceli Bonitto 6-0, 6-1

No. 3: Briana Rademacher (B) def. Lizzy Ross 6-2, 6-2

No. 4: Mackayla Headlee (B) won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

Doubles

No. 1: Zoe Houle-Kayla Kramer (B) def. Samantha Nelson-Layne Meyer 6-1, 6-1

No. 2: Sam Kletscher-Courtney Tusler (B) def. Rachel Phelps-Breanna Turman 6-4, 6-1

No. 3: Kathryn Chandler-Katie Southard (B) def. Brittany Glatt-Ashley Wood 6-0, 6-0

MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.

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