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Girls tennis: Lourdes has tough draw at state tennis

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Lourdes' Molly Belda returns the ball to Lake City's Sarah Ziebarth on Monday at No. 3 singles.

The Lourdes girls tennis program sure likes the idea of seeding the Class A state tennis tournament.

It's hard to blame the Eagles. They are ranked second in the state, and — barring an upset — are likely to play top-ranked Blake in the semifinals.

That's not an easy draw in a tournament that begins Tuesday with Lourdes playing No. 10 Roseau in the first round at 2 p.m. at Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in Minneapolis.

Blake leads off at noon against No. 3-ranked Litchfield. Lourdes and Blake met in last year's championship, with the Bears rolling to a 6-1 win.

That drawing seemed equitable then, with Blake and Lourdes also ranked No. 1 and 2 at the time. This year, however, top-ranked Blake likely will face the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in Class A in the first two rounds at state.

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Lourdes coach David Pettengill longs for this tournament to be seeded, which would have put Lourdes and Blake on opposite sides of the bracket for the second straight year. He notes that Class AA has been seeding its state tournament for years.

"It does seem quite unfair that they aren't doing any of that in (Class A)," Pettengill said. "Class AA does (seeds), and it's the only fair thing to do. What you do in the regular season should count for something."

What the Eagles did in the regular season was go 10-1, their only loss to Mayo, which is ranked fourth in Class AA. That helped the Eagles maintain that No. 2 ranking all season.

What they've done of late is look better than ever. Their scores suggest it. Lourdes beat Lake City 5-2 early in the year then downed the Tigers 6-1 at mid-season, before romping past them 7-0 in the section finals two weeks ago.

Lourdes, which has just one senior starter (No. 3 singles player Molly Belda) is definitely heading in the right direction at the right time.

"In match play, I can tell we are getting stronger," said Pettengill, who is in his fourth season as Lourdes head coach. "Each season I've been here, we've started off decent, then with practice and working on a few things, have gotten better."

Pettengill said he's getting everything he could have hoped for from this crew.

It's one that's led by sophomore Clare Palen, junior Natalie Allison and Belda. Palen is ranked fourth in the state and Allison eighth. Belda is likely a top-20 player and comes with lots of experience and leadership skills.

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