By Chris Bennett
Sports correspondent
Leesa Seesing finished fourth at No. 3 singles and helped the Elkhorn Area High School girls tennis team to a sixth-place finish in the Southern Lakes Conference Tournament.
Competitors contested the tournament Sept. 21 and 23. Delavan-Darien and Lake Geneva Badger high schools split hosting duties.
The Elks are now onto the postseason, and will compete in a WIAA Division 1 sub-sectional meet Oct. 2 at Beloit Memorial.
“I think the tournament went really well,” Elks coach Grant Paisley said of the SLC Tournament. “We had a lot of wins against team we lost to in the regular season.”
A player’s first match in the SLC Tournament is crucial. If a player wins their first match, they go on to play for places first through fourth. Lose your first match, and you’re playing for fifth through eighth.
Seesing’s first match – against Burlington’s Sydney Meier – went three hours. Sesing won the first set 7-6(3) and lost the second set 6-4 before winning the third set 6-0.
“It was hot – it was very hot,” Paisley said. “It was a long match, and a big win for her.”
Seesing lost to Westosha Central’s Bojana Bojanic 6-0, 6-3 in the third-place match and finished fourth.
Gabby Richardson, the Elks’ No.1 singles player, finished fifth. Kendall Birnbaum, at No. 2 singles, and the No. 1 doubles team of Payton Christensen and Ali Smith also finished fifth.
Richardson beat Union Grove’s Nixie Grajera in three sets for fifth at No. 1 singles. Richardson won the first set 6-2 before losing the second set 6-1 and winning the third set 10-7.
Birnbaum beat Delavan-Darien’s Laura Farley 7-5, 6-3 and Christensen and Smith defeated Wilmot’s Kaitlyn Pahl and Rayanne Jones 6-0, 6-4 for fifth place.
Badger won the conference title. Westosha finished second, Wilmot third and Burlington and Union Grove tied for fourth. Waterford finished sixth and Delavan-Darien came in eighth.
