The Yankton Gazelles tennis team placed third in the Eastern South Dakota Conference tennis competition on Tuesday afternoon at Yankton high school, as Nora and Sabrina Krajewski captured their 54th consecutive doubles win and third straight flight one doubles ESD title.
“There’s not a team in the state that wouldn’t love to be in the situation we are in with Nora and Sabrina,” Yankton head coach Ryan Hage said. “Their shoes won’t be filled, and I’m so happy that they got the opportunity to go out on top at their home court.”
Nora took home her fourth ESD title, including a third straight at flight one, while Sabrina captured her second ESD title in flight two. Despite the success, the sisters have a larger goal in mind.
“We’re really excited for state,” Nora Krajewski said. “We have been working extremely hard and still undefeated. I don’t want to jinx anything, but we’re feeling really good heading into the state tournament.”
Also for Yankton, Karalyn Koerner and Meagan Scott finished third in the flight two doubles. Koerner placed fourth at flight three singles, while Scott finished fifth at flight four singles.
“The girls have been working hard all season,” Hage said. “We knew we had a strong top of the lineup with Nora and Sabrina, but we also knew we needed a lot of people to step up from last year, and they exceeded those expectations this season.”
For team totals, Harrisburg won the ESD with a team score of 312. Mitchell followed with 275 points, while Yankton took third with 241 points. Aberdeen Central closed out the top four teams at 207.5 points.
“ESD has always been special,” Sabrina Krajewski said. “It’s something that only a few teams get to experience, which makes it such a confidence booster before state.”
The Gazelles will close out their season with a trip to Sioux Falls for the Class AA state competition on Oct. 9 and 10.