We knew we'd have an absolute battle on our hands tonight.  Rocori was 9-3 coming into the match and has had some impressive wins on the year.  We didn't quite come out on top, but we definitely played very well and saw competitive matches all around.  Our doubles win tonight came from our first doubles team of Karley Braeger and Cyntreya Lockett who cruised through their first set and, after a little lull in their level of play, earned the match in a second set tie breaker.  Karley and Cindy are really playing well right now and can compete at the top of the doubles ladder with very good teams.  Ruby Ellison and Ashtyn Lill earned wins in our singles lineup tonight as well.  Ruby played a very tight, competitive match at third singles.  Ruby, as a second year player and just a freshman, is still really just learning the game.  She's gaining confidence to just go out there and stroke the ball.  She's learning to trust her strokes, follow through and play aggressive tennis.  After winning a tight first set, Ruby found herself down 4-1 in the second before she rattled off 5 straight games to get the win.  It was a fun win for her to get and a confidence boost to just trust her game on the court.  Ashtyn earned a fairly routine win at fourth singles, 6-1, 6-4.  With just a little hiccup in the second set, Ashtyn took care of business pretty well tonight.  She's striking the ball very well right now and using her first serve as a weapon.  When Ashtyn plays aggressively and approaches the net, good things tend to happen for her and she's been doing a lot of that lately.  

The team match didn't end up going our way exactly, but it certainly played out in dramatic fashion.  With the teams tied at 3 apiece, our third doubles duo of Kezi Hartwell and Kylie King sent their match to a decisive third set.  In just their second match together as a team, and Kylie's second varsity match, these girls put in a heck of an effort in a nail-biter of a three set match.  Kezi and Kylie dropped the first set 4-6 and won the second set 6-4 to earn a third set.  The third set was very back-and-forth.  With Kylie serving at 4-5, the girls found themselves down love-40 and facing triple match points against their serve.  They fought off all three of them, along with another after a deuce point, before earning Kylie's service game to tie things up at 5-5.  They battled so hard and played smart tennis, but fell just short in the final set and eventually dropped the match 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.  Tonight was a great effort by Kezi and Kylie and they have absolutely nothing to hang their heads about.  

The Otters take their home courts again on Monday against East Grand Forks in a 4:00 8AA dual.