Eskymos, Braves Battle To Another Tennis Tie, 4-4
GLADSTONE---The Escanaba Eskymos and Gladstone Braves played to a 4-4 tie in a girls tennis dual match Tuesday afternoon in Gladstone. It's the second time this season that the teams ended in a draw. The Eskymos, again, won all four singles matches, while the Braves, again, won all four doubles matches. Marnnea LaFave and Kylie Williams won the first set over Escanaba's Jessica Koish and Anna Branstrom, 6-4. But the Eskymo duo dominated the next set, 6-0, and won the first five points of the third set, making it eleven straight points. But hold on! LaFave and Williams won the next seven points to win the set, and the match, 7-5. "That was a huge win for them, and for the team," Gladstone Coach Dan Williams said. In fact, all four of the doubles matches were interesting, with three of them going the distance. At #1 doubles, it was quite a battle, as Escanaba's Heather Bergstrom and Abby Knudsen took Gladstone's Sydney Herioux and Ahelby Martinucci down to the wire. The Esky girls won the first set, 6-3, before Herioux and Martinucci rallied to win, 6-4 and 7-5. The third doubles was a bit easier for the Braves, as Olivia Saari and Alaina Trudeau managed to avoid a third set with Escanaba's Rene Perrault and Mykenzie Monkevich. But even that took a tiebreaker for the Braves to win the second set, 7-2. The Gladstone girls won the first set, 6-2. As for the singles flights, the Eskymos won all four, with three of them ending in straight sets. Taylor Gauthier topped Andie Balenger, 6-3, 6-1, at #1 singles; Megan Marenger defeated Kirsten Williams, 7-5, 6-3, at #2 singles; and Jasmine Clark cruised past Natalie Hansen at #3 singles, 6-1, 6-3. The fourth singles match between Escanaba's Maddy Ihde and Gladstone's Erin Stevenson went three sets, with Stevenson winning the first set, 6-1, and Ihde rallying to win the last two sets, 6-2, 6-2. Overall, it was a very competitive afternoon of tennis for the Delta County rivals. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, plus videos from the #2 singles match. |