The BEA coaching staff and the three athletes who qualified for the State Tennis Tournament are pictured above. Left to right are coach Spencer Monson, Grace Hanson, Addison Armstrong, Olivia Dutton and Colby Swanson.

The Blue Earth Area girls tennis team may have ended the season’s team play with a 4-3 loss to Maple River on Oct. 5, but they nabbed several individual victories at the Section 2A Semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

By the end of the day, three of the Bucs’ top singles players had earned tickets to the Individual State Tournament at Minneapolis’s Read-Sweatt Family Tennis Center on Thursday, Oct. 26 and Friday, Oct. 27.

Respective No. 1 and No. 2 singles players Addison Armstrong and Olivia Dutton both bagged their second trip to State as individual competitors on Wednesday, while No. 3 singles player Grace Hanson will be making her State debut on Oct. 26.

Armstrong will compete at State as a singles player, and Dutton and Hanson will team up as doubles players for the tournament.

Armstrong began Oct. 6’s Quarterfinals with a first-round bye before besting Redwood Valley’s Lilly DeBlieck, 6-0, 6-0, to earn her slot at the Gustavus-Adolphus-hosted Semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

She started off the first round of the Semifinals by defeating River Valley’s Brissa Hernandez, 6-3, 6-1. Armstrong’s 6-0, 6-0 shut out of Redwood Valley’s Brooke Zollner in the next round solidified her ticket to State.

Dutton and Hanson started off Quarterfinals against River Valley’s Jillian Mays and Erika Wells, and swept their opponents in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0. They earned a slot in the Semifinals with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Redwood Valley’s Mila Jenniges and Anneliese Hammer.

The Bucs got off to a shaky start on Wednesday when they were defeated, 6-1, 6-0, by Maple River’s Ally Mersman and Macy Sohre. However, they rallied for a 7-5, 6-1 win over Maple River’s Kelsey Jaeger and Madison Ward in the next round.

Dutton and Hanson faced St. James’ Allison Bluedorn and Keyana Haler in the true-second challenge. The Bucs took the first set, 6-2, but lost the second set to St. James, 6-4. The tiebreaking third set went to the Bucs, 6-1, solidifying their second-place finish and their ticket to State.

Other Buccaneers made their individual bids for State on Oct. 6, including doubles players Ashlyn Klinkner and Carol Schrader. The Buc duo won their first-round match against Redwood Valley’s Michelle Smith and Julia Lang, 6-1, 7-5, before losing out to Bluedorn and Haler in the next round, 6-2, 6-0.

BEA’s Lauren Survis entered the Quarterfinals Singles Division with a first-round loss to Fairmont’s Emelia Klanderud, 6-0, 6-0.

Several United South Central Rebels also joined the competition on Oct. 6. USC’s No. 1 singles player, Brylee Neubauer, faced St. James’ Lily Ciske in the first round, suffering a narrow, 7-5 loss in the first set. Neubauer bounced back for a 6-2 victory in the second set, but lost her chance to advance to the Quarterfinals when Ciske won the third set, 6-1.

Rebel singles player Maya Hanson also played a close match in the first round, losing her first set against St. James’ Maya Kulseth, 6-3, but winning the second set, 6-2. Kulseth won the third set, 6-1, thereby ending Hanson’s bid for a slot in the Quarterfinals.

USC’s Addison Mithun and Olivia Bungum teamed up in the doubles division, where they suffered a first-round loss to St. James’ Alexis Brekken and Mykela Hanson, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

Rebels Ivy O’Rourke and Eva Hernandez also entered the competition as doubles players. They were defeated by Fairmont’s Hope Klanderud and Abi Peyman in the first round, 6-0, 6-2.