BEA’s State tennis qualifiers pose for a picture before leaving for Minneapolis. Left to right they are Olivia Dutton, Addison Armstrong and Grace Hanson.

On Wednesday, Oct. 25, three Buccaneer girls were sent off to the Individual State Tennis Tournament in style with a pep rally and lots of well-wishes.

Blue Earth Area seniors Addison Armstrong and Olivia Dutton were returning to Minneapolis’s Read-Sweatt Family Tennis Center for the second time as individual State competitors, while sophomore Grace Hanson made her State debut on Oct. 26.

Armstrong has competed as BEA’s No. 1 singles player throughout the season, and she earned her ticket to State with a full sweep of the singles competition at the Section 2A Semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

Armstrong’s first match was scheduled bright and early on Thursday morning, at 8 a.m. Her opponent, Pine City’s Brooke Boland, proved tough competition, as she served Armstrong a 6-1, 6-0 defeat in the first round.

Boland would go on to suffer a 6-0, 6-0 defeat in the second round at the racquet of No. 1-seeded Isabelle Einess. Einess faced No. 4-seeded Casey Cronin, of Holy Family Catholic High School, in the Semifinals on Friday morning, at 8 ­­ a.m.

The winner of that match was slated to battle the winner of a Semifinal match between Cotter’s Emma Hageman and Osakis’s Leah Maddock in the Championship match on Friday, at 11:30 a.m.

A match for third place was also scheduled for 11:30 a.m. that morning, to be played between the defeated Semifinals contestants.

Armstrong, meanwhile, went on to compete in the consolation bracket after her first round defeat on Thursday morning. She triumphed over Montevideo’s Brooke Lindeman, 6-4, 6-1, in the first round of the consolation bracket, and she was slated to face New London-Spicer’s Amyra Gamez in the Semifinal round on Friday morning, at 8 a.m.

The consolation bracket’s champion was to be determined at an 11:30 a.m. match on Friday morning.

While Armstrong competed at singles, Dutton and Hanson were trying their racquets on the State doubles courts.

Dutton and Hanson typically represented BEA at the No. 2 and No. 3 singles slots throughout the 2023 season, but they teamed up as doubles partners for the Section 2A Quarterfinals and Semifinals earlier this month.

Dutton and Hanson got off to a shaky start in the Section Semifinals. However, they followed up a first-round loss with the necessary wins to secure a second-place finish in the Semifinals and a slot in the State doubles bracket.

The Bucs faced Minnehaha Academy’s No. 2-seeded team of Greta Johnson and Chloe Alley on Thursday morning, and the Bucs suffered a tough, 6-1, 6-2 loss to their opponents in the first round.

Johnson and Alley would go on to defeat Litchfield’s Isla Dille and Olivia Olson in round two, 6-1, 6-2. They were scheduled to play Rochester Lourdes’s Caroline Daly and Elyse Palen – the No. 3-seeds – at the Semifinal match held on Friday morning, at 8 a.m.

The doubles championship match was to be held later that morning, at 11:30 a.m., as was the match to determine the third place doubles champions.

When Dutton and Hanson went on to compete in the doubles consolation bracket, they were matched up against Pine City’s Lexa Valvoda and Alana Linell in the first round. The Bucs suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to the Pine City duo, thus ending their run at State.