The Minnewaska Area girls tennis team had a great season this year, losing to NLS in the section semifinals, 5-2, while also having a doubles’ team come within one victory of earning a state berth.  Oh yeah, the Lakers also finished 12-7 overall and 8-0 in the WCC to earn the program’s ninth-straight conference title.

The Lakers will lose only Brianna Erickson to graduation.  She finished 5-12 this season playing mostly fourth singles and third doubles.

Coaching the team again this year was Tara Reichmann, who completed her 24th season as the girls tennis coach at Minnewaska Area.  She is 493-276 for her coaching career, having also coached the Laker boys team for 18 years and at Rochester for three seasons.

Minnewaska Area was 8-0 in the WCC this season, while Montevideo placed second with a 6-2 record, followed by Morris Area-CA/WCA (5-3), Benson-KMS (4-4), MACCRAY (4-4), Melrose Area (4-4), LQP-DB (2-6), Sauk Centre (2-6) and YME (0-8).

•  The Lakers fell in the semifinals of the Section 6A Tourney this year.  Seeded third, the Lakers beat Sauk Centre in the first round before losing to NLS in the semifinals, 5-2.  NLS went on to beat top-seeded Osakis for the section title, 4-3, and then went 0-2 at state, losing to Pine City (6-1) and Providence Academy (4-3).

•  Members of this year’s Minnewaska Area varsity girls tennis team were senior Brianna Erickson; juniors Katie Sorenson, Megan Thorfinnson, Katy Vold, Avarie Uhde and McKenna Uhde; sophomores Addy Heid, Alia Randt and Olivia Danielson; and ninth-graders Rachel Rankin, Kaylen Blair, Norah VanZee, Kennedy Blair and Adysen Hess.

•  Alia Randt, who played first singles for most of the season, and Megan Thorfinnson, who played second singles, had the best records for the Lakers this season with 17-8 records, while Addy Heid (16-5) and Rachel Rankin (16-7) both finished the season with 16 victories.

Thorfinnson is an unofficial 62-36 overall for her career, while Randt is 58-40.

Minnewaska Area had eight players with at least 10 wins this year as Katie Sorenson and Katy Vold were both 13-9 and Olivia Danielson and Avarie Uhde were both 13-10.

The Lakers will return their first through fourth singles players next year (Randt, Thorfinnson, Rankin and Heid, respectively) and will also return most of their doubles’ players as Danielson and Uhde played first doubles, Sorenson and Vold competed at second doubles, and Kaylen Blair (8-9), Norah VanZee (5-2) and McKenna Uhde (1-4) saw action this year at third doubles along with Erickson.

The only losses for the Lakers this year were to Mound-W (5-2), Crookston (5-2), Staples-Motley (7-0), Pine City (6-1), Osakis (6-1) and NLS (6-1 and 5-2).