BEA senior Addison Armstrong is pictured above with her fifth place State tennis medal and the singles consolation bracket showing her route to the consolation championship.

When Buccaneer Addison Armstrong set off for the 2023 Individual State Tennis Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 26, the stage was set for the ultimate comeback story.

By the following Friday, Armstrong had capped off her senior tennis season with a fifth-place finish at State.

The victory would represent Armstrong’s 104th career win; she booked 22 of those wins this season alone as BEA’s top singles player.

The tennis phenom has also enjoyed three trips to State in total: a journey to the Team State Tennis Tournament in 2019, followed by two trips to the Individual State Tennis Tournament her junior and senior years.

Armstrong’s eye was clearly on the prize as she made her final bid for State this fall. She entered the Section Quarterfinals with a first-round bye, and she went on to sweep her opponent with a 6-0, 6-0 defeat in the next round to advance to the Semifinals.

Armstrong blazed through the Semifinals competition, too. By the end of the day, she had secured two more straight-set victories, and her slot at the State tournament.

At this point, Armstrong recalls, “It was a really good feeling to be able to achieve the opportunity to go to State again, because it’s not easy.”

A few weeks later, Armstrong joined two of her teammates – Olivia Dutton and Grace Hanson – for the State tournament at Minneapolis’s Read-Sweatt Family Tennis Center on Oct. 26.

Dutton and Hanson, who competed at State as doubles partners, lost their first round match against Minnehaha Academy’s Greta Johnson and Chloe Alley on Thursday morning, and saw another first round defeat in the consolation bracket against Pine City’s Lexa Valvoda and Alana Linell.

Armstrong’s first round match, meanwhile, was scheduled against Pine City’s Brooke Boland at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning. She had, in fact, already faced Boland earlier in the season, at which point she was defeated by the Dragon 6-2, 6-0.

Intending to learn from her earlier loss, Armstrong entered her second match against Boland with a focused mindset.

“I remembered how she played, and tried my best to track her,” Armstrong explains.

Unfortunately, Boland defeated Armstrong a second time at State, 6-1, 6-0, a loss which sent Armstrong to the singles consolation bracket.

Boland would go on to lose her second round match to eventual State champion Isabelle Einess, who won the title on Friday morning after defeating runner-up Leah Maddock, of Osakis.

Meanwhile, Armstrong quite literally made the best of her first-round loss, entering the consolation bracket with her eye on the championship.

On Thursday, at noon, Armstrong faced Montevideo’s Brooke Linderman for her first round consolation match, which she won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.  

Round two began on Friday, Oct. 27, at 8 a.m. Armstrong’s opponent was New London-Spicer’s Amyra Gamez, who had lost out to Holy Family Catholic’s Casey Cronin in her first-round match on Thursday morning.

Cronin would later finish fourth at State after her defeat by Cotter’s Emma Hageman for the third place title.

After her loss to Cronin, Gamez also faced defeat at Armstrong’s racquet in the consolation Semifinals, 6-4, 6-0. Now on a roll, Armstrong advanced to the consolation Championship round held at 11:30 a.m. on Friday.

Armstrong’s challenger for the title was Thief River Falls’s Braylee Wienen. Armstrong made quick work of her opponent, winning the championship match, 6-2, 6-2, and earning a fifth-place finish at State.

The win meant the realization of a long-time goal for Armstrong.

“Last year, I had said to my coach that I really wanted a medal,” she remembers. “I made that happen.” 

She adds, “It’s definitely something I’m proud of, and I’ll never forget the experience of going.”

Although her high school tennis career has come to its conclusion, Armstrong will compete for the Maroon and Gold a few more times before her graduation.

She will be starting her senior gymnastics season soon, and she hopes to wrap up her final year as a Buccaneer on BEA’s track team in the spring.

Armstrong will attend college in Eau Claire, Wisconsin next fall to study rehabilitation sciences and receive her certification in physical therapy. Although she does not plan to play tennis in college, Armstrong will continue her involvement in athletics on the track field.

“I’m done playing tennis after high school, but I’m going to pole vault,” she says.