ROCHESTER — It was just a week ago that Cannon Falls upended Lake City 4-3 in girls tennis.
For the Tigers, it was a wake-up call.
They showed that they were fully roused Monday afternoon at the Rochester Athletic Club, reversing the outcome with the Bombers.
The Tigers’ 4-3 win sends them to state for the second straight year and the second time in school history. The event is Oct. 27-28 at Inner City Tennis in Minneapolis.
Lake City takes with it a 17-1 record, that lone loss a week ago to Cannon Falls, a team it beat 6-1 early in the season. Cannon Falls closed the team portion of its season 15-6.
“I don’t think that 4-3 loss to Cannon Falls was a motivator,” Lake City third-year coach Nick Dudley said. “But it was a bad loss and we played sloppy, If you don’t show up to play, it can happen.”
Motivator or not, Lake City was sure it would have its hands full with Cannon Falls, a team that virtually always plays the Tigers tough.
“Cannon Falls always puts up a good fight,” Lake City junior and No. 1 singles player Therese Bauer said. “It’s always tight with them. But we were confident that we had the skills to win.”
There were plenty of great matchups in the dual, highlighted by Bauer taking on senior Livia Tennessen. Bauer is ranked seventh in state Class 1A, Tennessen eighth.
It was Bauer who got the best of things, showing off consistently strong ground strokes to win 6-3, 6-2. It marked the third time this season that Bauer had beaten the Cannon Falls standout.
Bauer, whose eighth-grade sister Gemma Bauer plays No. 2 singles for Lake City and was also a winner (6-1, 6-2), had a stretch during Monday’s match when she was getting seriously tested by Tennessen.
That’s when Lake City assistant coach Rina Niehoff stepped in between games, offering some advice.
“She just told me that now is not the time to get (emotionally) down,” Bauer said. “She told me to just keep moving my feet and told me that I know I can beat her.”
Though the two have had a strong rivalry through the years, it marked the third time in three tries this season that Bauer had beaten Tennessen.
Lake City also got wins at No. 2 singles (eighth-grader Gemma Bauer), No. 3 singles (junior Rylee Thieren) and No. 3 doubles (freshman Tenley Poncelet and eighth-grader Maggie Thieren).
That gave the Tigers the requisite four wins and led to a serious celebration by their players.
“Just being with the team at state, that is what is so fun,” Lake City’s Rylee Thieren said. “Going out to eat and going to the hotel with your teammates, it’s all fun.”
A year ago, the Tigers lost their first state tournament match, won their second one and then fell in the fifth-place match.
It wasn’t necessarily expected that Lake City would be headed back to state this season. It was fleeced by graduation last spring, five of its varsity players seniors.
But the Tigers put in huge chunks of time to get better over the summer, including many of the non-varsity players from a year ago.
It paid off. Therese Bauer isn’t sure which team is now better, last year’s Tigers or this year’s.
“We lost a lot of seniors last year,” Therese Bauer said. “But I think that overall, after all the work we put in, the two teams are even overall. But we had amazing seniors last year. They made us very tight as a team and that carried over into this year.”
Lake City coach Dudley considered it quite a feat, getting back to state after so many changes from a year ago.
“Anytime you graduate five seniors, that’s not easy to replicate,” he said. “But from early August until now, they have grown so much. It’s just a great group to coach. They do a great job of being there for each other.”
Rylee Thieren believed her team responded perfectly after losing to Cannon Falls last week. Their coach had a lot to do with that.
“We had a really tough practice after that,” Thieren said. “And then when we won against Waseca (5-2 in Monday’s semifinals), that really boosted our confidence,”
Pairings and seeding have not yet come out for the state tournament.
SEMIFINALS
No. 1 Lake City 5, No. 5 Waseca 2
Singles: Therese Bauer (LC) def. Hannah Rugger 6-3, 6-3; Gema Bauer (LC) def. Ava Miller 6-2, 6-2; Rylee Thieren (LC) def. Libby Miller 6-1, 6-1; Julia Huettl (LC) def. Sam Sutton 6-0, 6-1. Doubles: Anna Benson/Hannah Sommers (W) def. Addie Thieren/Marlena Brunkow 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Lucy Deml/Olivia Hagen (W) def. Lucy Beckman/Addison Ahrens 7-5, 6-7 (7-4), 1-0 (7-5); Tenley Poncelet/Maggie Thieren (LC) def. Kayla Landrum/Everly Kestel 6-3, 6-2.
No. 2 Cannon Falls 5, No. 3 Winona Cotter 2
Singles: Livia Tennessen (CF) def. Adela Koliskova 6-0, 6-0; Stella Brewer (WC) def. Avery Stark 6-1, 6-1; Breanna Burgess (CF) def. Eva Doherty 6-0, 6-3; Lola Winchell (CF) def. Lily Doug 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-8). Doubles: Karen Hasegawa/Amanda Hasegawa (WC) def. Malena Mandelkow/Jillian Sjoquist. Iranda Mandelkow/Alyssa Burgess (CF) def. Elle Jerowski/Ginebra Galan Martin 6-1, 6-0; Marissa Mandelkow/Kinley Sheller (CF) def. Omni Errthum/Olivia McGlaun 6-1, 6-1.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Singles: Therese Bauer (LC) def. Livia Tennessen 6-3, 6-2; Gemma Bauer (LC) def. Jillian Sjoquist 6-1, 6-2; Rylee Thieren (LC) def. Marissa Mandelkow 6-2, 6-2; Kinley Sheller (CF) def. Julia Huettl 6-1, 6-4. Doubles: Miranda Mandelkow/Malena Mandelkow (CF) def. Addie Thieren/Marlena Brunkow 6-4, 6-1; Avery Stark/Alyssa Burgess (CF) def. Lucy Beckman/Addison /Ahrens 6-7 (11-9), 6-1, 1-0 (8-6) Tenley Poncelet/Maggie Thieren (LC) def. Lola Winchell/Lily Nelson 7-5, 6-0.