Decorah shuts out Osage

By Becky Walz,

Wednesday, April 21, 2021 10:00 pm

The Decorah girls’ tennis team warmed up the courts on a cold evening in Decorah Monday night with a convincing 9-0 score over the visiting Osage Green Devils. Paying little attention to the cool air and blustery wind gusts, 12 different players contributed to the victory. 
Annalise Skrade had a good match with a fine No. 1 player — Victoria Schwarting of Osage. The two had locked horns earlier this season in a very competitive match and this one was no different. Trading games in the first set, the score stood at 4-4 when Skrade, playing some of her best tennis of the year, won the final two games to wrap up a first set victory. Starting the second set where she had ended the first, the Viking netter slammed the pedal to the metal in the second set to secure a victory in the match. 
Playing in the No. 2 spot, Mara Holland shut out Grace Mallory of Osage in a pair of 6-0 sets, while Kristi Kjome-Johnson defeated Green Devil Lauren Swenson 6-1 and 6-0 at No. 3. Nadia Johnson took care of business with two 6-0 sets over Osage’s Sue Meyer in the No. 4 spot. At No. 5, Allison Pavlovec caught the eye of her coach with her perfectly placed shots that carried her to victory, 6-0 and 6-1 over Faith Neilson. Rounding out the singles action at No. 6 was Decorah’s Evon Leitz and Osage’s Bella Martin. Leitz took the match by 6-0 and 6-1 sets.
“Allison continues to improve her groundstrokes and coverage of the court allowing her to better dictate the way the set is played. She enters competition with a sound game plan which no longer allows her opponents to hit the shot they would like to hit. Instead, Allison forces them to scramble to come up with a return of her shots,” said Coach Larry Berland.
Decorah’s Morgan Brauer and Cady Peterson teamed up in doubles action to defeat Osage’s Schwarting and Swenson in a pair of 6-0 sets. In the No. 2 doubles position it was Kendra Bigler and Paige Lange besting Mallory and Neilsen, 6-0 and 6-0. 
At No. 3 and playing in their very first varsity doubles match, Jenna Hartz and Liz Clement hung tough and had to win two tiebreakers to gain a hard fought win. The first set see-sawed back and forth with both teams winning a game at a time until the score became tied at 6-all forcing a first regular 7-point tiebreaker. The tiebreaker took on the same design of the set with one team winning a point and then the other until Decorah finally prevailed, 7-5. Due to impending darkness and the temperature dropping, coaches decided to play a 10-point super tiebreaker for the match. The final score found the Decorah duo holding on to a slim 11-9 score to win the tiebreaker and the match. 
“What a way to get your feet wet playing in very first varsity doubles match. I was very proud of the players, up and down the lineup, for stepping up their play regardless of the conditions,” said Coach Berland. “Thanks also to assistant coach Miriam Skrade’s continuing support and strategy talks during timeouts has really proved to be a help in the players’ matches.”
Decorah’s next match will be versus Union Thursday in Decorah at 4:30 p.m., followed by a Saturday tournament in Clinton at 9 a.m.

 

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