By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
Gabby Richardson finished fifth at No. 1 singles and led the Elkhorn Area High School girls tennis team to a sixth-place team finish Sept. 24 in the Southern Lakes Conference girls varsity tennis tournament.
The tournament started Sept. 23 and concluded Sept. 24. Matches at Nos. 1 and 2 singles and doubles took place at Burlington. Waterford hosted matches at Nos. 3 and 4 singles and doubles.
The Elks played at East Troy Monday in a non-conference dual meet.
Elkhorn competes Oct. 3 in a WIAA Division 1 subsectional meet at Delavan-Darien. The Elks compete Oct. 5 in a Division 1 sectional meet at Badger.
The Girls State Tennis Tournament is Oct. 13-15 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium on the University of Wisconsin campus.
Richardson beat Waterford’s Veronica Tenhagen 6-2, 6-2 in the fifth-place match. Richardson defeated Burlington’s Lacey Londre 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fifth-place match.
“I really felt Gabby turned the corner in beating a tough opponent in Burlington,” Elks coach Christopher Chen said. “She lost to her pretty badly a week earlier, and to bounce back like that showed a lot of character.”
Richardson lost to Westosha Central’s Stephanie Dopuch 6-4, 6-2 in her opening match of the tournament.
The Elks’ Mikalia Jacob at No. 3 singles, Payton Christensen and Eirean Murphy at No. 1 doubles, Ali Smith and Jen Fromholz at No. 2 doubles and Tristan Nichols and Madison Page at No. 3 doubles finished sixth in the their respective flights.
Jacob lost to Westosha Central’s Janell Gilmore 6-0, 6-2 in the fifth-place match at finished the tournament with a record of 1-2.
Christensen and Murphy lost in three sets to Central’s Alyssa Hrncar and Tori Salerno in the fifth-place match. Hrncar and Salerno won the first set 6-3 before Christensen and Murphy won the second set 7-5. Hrncar and Salerno won the third set 10-6.
“Our No. 1 doubles team also beat a team they had lost to previously,” Chen said. “While they lost in the fifth-place match, they have definitely improved from the beginning of the season.”
Smith and Fromholz beat Waterford’s Tatum Burazin and Emilie Allen 6-3 in the first set. Burazin and Allen won the second set 6-3 and the third set 7-6 (10).
Nichols and Page lost the first set in the sixth-place match 6-0 to Waterford’s Olivia Cammers and Taylor Brown. Cammers and Brown won the second set 7-5 and third set 10-6.
The Elks and Wolverines tied for sixth in the final team standings, which take into account dual meets in the regular season. Elkhorn won two SLC dual meets this past season.
Badger won the SLC title. Union Grove finished second, Westosha third, Burlington fourth and Wilmot fifth. Delavan-Darien finished eighth.
At the subsectional meet, those who reach the semifinals in Flight 1, singles or doubles, and those reaching the finals in Flights 2, 3, or 4 singles and Flights 2 and 3 doubles advance to the sectional meet.
At the sectional meet, the top four finishers in Flight 1 and the top finisher in Flight 2 in singles and doubles at each sectional, along with a maximum of sixteen additional singles players and doubles teams as special qualifiers, advance to state.
