Ruby Ellison had a great day today in singles action.  Her first round match brought her up against the #2 seed Lila Collins from Brainerd.  Ruby started out on absolute fire today.  We thought this could really be a great matchup for Ruby's style of play coming into the match.  Ruby loves pace and has a great all-court game, as does Lila. Ruby found herself out to a quick lead in the first set and really dictated play, winning the set 6-2.  As top players tend to do, Lila made adjustments and came roaring back in the second set.  Lila began serving and volleying on occasion and really forcing her way into the net, finishing points well up there.  Ruby and Lila really went toe-to-toe the rest of the way.  Both girls were hitting winner after winner and it was very high level tennis.  The second set ended in a tie-break, with Lila eeking out the set 7-6(7-5).  The final set was much more of the same.  High level tennis with most points ending on winning shots.  Lila ended up taking the final set 6-4, but Ruby challenged this #2 seed to the max in a great effort today.  This loss put Ruby in the 3rd place match for her final round.  In the blink of an eye, Ruby was down 0-5 to Elizabeth Peterson of Bemidji.  The lack of pace in this matchup had Ruby overhitting in the beginning.  After the rough start, Ruby steadied the ship and really rallied to win the next two sets fairly easily and earned the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.  This match was quite a contrast from her first match of the day when Ruby was forced to be offensive, go for winners and play powerful tennis.  This final round simply required Ruby to outlast her partner as Ruby knew she was more consistent than her opponent.  After settling into that new mindset, Ruby did a great job of securing the win and earning herself the #3 seed next weekend at the section tournament.  This was a great weekend of tennis for Ruby.  She came in unseeded and knocked out the #6, #3 and #5 seeds.  It will be exciting to see what she can do next weekend in Sartell. 

On the doubles side of things, #3 seed Hattie Fullhart and Ashtyn Lill took to the courts to face the #2 seeded team from Brainerd, Claire Erdal and Ericah Folden.  Ashtyn and Hattie came out of the gates hot for this matchup.  The duo looked as clean as they have all year and earned the first set 6-1.  A score like that sounds like it could have been a blowout, but every game came down to one tight point here or there and Ashtyn and Hattie were doing an exceptional job of executing on the big points.  The second set was more of the same.  High-level play and tight games, though this set the decisive points tended to favor the Warriors as they took the set 6-2.  Again, a score that poorly represents how tight each game was.  This match had a bit of everything.  Great serving, lots of overhead putaways, lobbing opponents off the court and good, clean doubles.  In the end, Brainerd outlasted Fergus 6-3 in the third set, but a high-level match from the first ball strike to the last.  This loss put the Otters in the third place game for their final round.  They drew the #5 seed this time, another seeded team from Brainerd, a pair of seniors in Lydia Omberg and Brooklyn Dietz.  This match the Otters started out playing very smart and controlled tennis in the first set and earned it 6-2.  The Otters quickly lost steam after earning that first set and found themselves in quite the back and forth battle.  In the end, unforced errors snuck in and Brainerd capitalized, earning the next two sets 6-3 and 6-4.  This gives Hattie and Ashtyn the #4 seed heading into the section tournament next weekend.  

We will do some scouting this week to try and learn about our opponents for next weekend and gear up for a big day of play next Saturday, October 14 at StaFit in Sartell.  Go Otters!