Mayo upends upstart Austin, 4-3

Published 12:00 am Friday, August 30, 2002

The Austin - Mayo girls' tennis match got the attention it deserved, and the Packers almost got the play the contest demanded.

Austin split the first six matches with Mayo, leaving No. 4 singles player Angie Flaherty unknowingly in the driver's seat for the final match. With the team score tied 3-3, fans converged to watch the deciding match go in favor of the visiting Spartans.

"I didn't know when to go to her about it," said Austin first-year coach Dave Handeland. "She probably would have handled it, but she said that (in the second set) was probably the right time. If I tell her earlier maybe I could have turned it around."

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Flaherty fought as well as the rest of the Packers did, falling 7-5, 6-3 to Elli Trousdale in what came to be the deciding match. Austin won two of three doubles matches but only one singles pairing. Caitlin Jurgensen got the straight-set victory at No. 3 singles.

All seven matches were won in straight sets.

"It's just Mayo, one of the nine other teams in the conference," Handeland said. "But we know we can fight with the big dogs now.

"The girls know it's just one match."

Steph Bowe and Lisa Bue needed just one hour 15 minutes to dispatch their No. 2 doubles opponents, while Betsy Hingeveld and Margaret Wagner's win was not far behind at No. 3. Jurgensen came back from a 4-2 deficit in a first-set tiebreaker.

Amy Kelly suffered her first No. 1 singles loss of the season, falling 6-3, 6-3 to Mayo's Caitlin Loprinzi. The two had met only once before, with Loprinzi winning by the same score.

"She had me five feet behind the baseline the whole match, I couldn't keep it deep on her," Kelly said. "She just kept pushing me further and further back.

"She doesn't really have a weakness."

Austin won last year's regular-season match at Mayo, but the Spartans turned the tides in the Section 1 finals. Coach Handeland is hoping for a similar situation this go-round.

"Well, maybe it's just our year to flip it on them," Handeland said.

"We'll see them again at sections, we're looking forward to that," said AHS senior Noelle Wiebelhaus.

The Packers play Thursday at Mankato East before hosting Albert Lea next Saturday.

Results:

Singles

Caitlin Loprinzi (M) def. Amy Kelly, 6-3, 6-3

Katie Carr (M) def. Katie Erickson, 6-1, 6-2

Caitline Jurgensen (A) def. Allison Bond, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4

Elli Trousdale (M) def. Angie Flaherty, 7-5, 6-3

Doubles

Rachel Click and Becky Johnson (M) def. Claire Johnson and Noelle Wiebelhaus, 6-4, 6-1

Steph Bowe and Lisa Bue (A) def. Laura Grigolete and Leah Nichols, 6-1, 6-4

Betsy Hingeveld and Margaret Wagner (A) def. Lara Click and Katie Nichols, 6-3, 6-2