The Lennox High School girls’ tennis team started its season off on August 13 in Harrisburg. The team took on Huron to start the day off and came out playing some strong doubles. The duos of Ally Hanlon and Ellen Boomgarden at flight #1, Gracen Juffer and Madison Johnson at flight #2 and Lizzy Buehner and Madison Buehner at flight #3 all had close matches that were going back and forth. But unfortunately, at the end Huron was able to close out all three matches in some hard-fought battles.
In singles, Lennox had Hanlon at flight #1, Juffer at #2, Johnson at #3, L. Buehner at #4, Boomgarden at #5 and M. Buehner at #6. Hanlon and Juffer pulled out wins at their respective singles flights, but unfortunately Lennox was not able to pull out any other wins in singles, causing the Orioles to drop the dual with Huron 2-7.
“For our first match of the year I thought we came out ready and played some good tennis, Huron won a few more big points than we did and that was the difference of the match,” said Lennox Tennis head coach, Kevin Plank.
Lennox then took on Harrisburg, a Class AA school.
“Harrisburg earned a fourth place finish at state last year in class AA, so we knew it was going to be a tough battle,” said Plank.
Even though Lennox dropped the dual 1-8 with the lone win coming from Hanlon at flight #1 singles, the team played and competed hard.
Grace Dressen and Brooke Buehner also competed against Huron and Harrisburg in Junior Varsity matches. Dressen went 1-1 in singles at flight #1 and B. Buehner went 0-2 at flight #2 singles, and as a duo they went 0-2 on the day at flight #1 doubles.
On Saturday, Aug. 14 the varsity team took on Milbank at Harrisburg. Lennox came out strong and won all three doubles points with Hanlon and Boomgarden at flight #1, Juffer and Johnson at #2 and M. Buehner and Dressen at #3.
Lennox carried their momentum into singles and won five of the six singles flights to win the dual 1-8, which is Lennox’s first ever team win over Milbank. Miriam Welch also clinched a Junior Varsity win with a score of 6-3 over Milbank.
Also on the 14th, the Lennox JV took on Harrisburg again with the lineup of Dressen at flight #1, B. Buehner at #2, Brooklyn Glenn at #3 and Welch at flight #4.
“Even though the JV teams weren’t able to tally a win they had some good matches and gained some valuable experience to start the season,” said Plank.
The Orioles continued on as the Lennox varsity team traveled to Vermillion to take on Vermillion and Yankton on Tuesday, Aug. 17. The Orioles dropped the dual 2-7 against Vermillion with wins scored by Johnson at flight #3 singles and at the flight #2 doubles spot which was played by Johnson and Juffer. The team then took on Yankton but dropped the dual 0-9.
The JV also played on Aug. 17 and scored singles wins by Dressen at flight #1 and doubles wins by Dressen and B. Buehner at flight #1 doubles but dropped the dual with a team score of 2-3. They then took on Yankton and scored the JV win 4-2 by notching wins by Kathryn Loewe and Glenn in singles and B. Buehner/Loewe and Glenn/Welch in doubles.
On Aug. 21 and Aug. 22 the Orioles competed in the Madison invite. Singles were played on Friday which included ten teams and doubles were played on Saturday with nine teams participating.
In singles, five of the six Lennox athletes tallied at least one win. At flight #3, Johnson made it to the finals where she earned a second-place finish. In doubles the flight #3 the team of L. Buehner/M. Buehner went 2-1 and the duo of Johnson/Juffer went 4-0 on the day and took home the championship. Johnson posted an overall record of 6-1 in singles and doubles during the invite.
Lennox was scheduled to travel to Kuehn Park to compete in a Triangular with Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Brandon Valley on Monday, Aug. 23. On Thursday, Aug. 26 the Orioles will travel to Vermillion to compete in a Dual, beginning at 4 p.m. at Vermillion High School. On Tuesday, Aug. 31 the team will travel to McKennan Park where they compete in a dual against Sioux Falls Christian at 4 p.m.
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