Parts are still coming together for Medical Lake girls' tennis team

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

Even as the season moves into official Great Northern League competition, there is still a lot up in the air for the look of the Medical Lake girls' tennis team.

Of course, it hasn't helped that mild spring weather that had worked in their favor has turned a bit nasty and has kept coach Dawn Eliassen's team off the court, thus preventing her from finalizing positions.

So the Cardinals will go with a line-up where the singles are set – for now – and continue to tinker with some fine tuning.

Eliassen has indicated that Nissa VanMeter, a senior in her fourth season, junior Danielle VonLehe, Heather Butler, a senior and junior Kylie Tareski, will start at spots one through four respectively. “They will continue to play those top four spots at least the next few matches,” Eliassen said.

“I may shift and play a couple of them in doubles,” she said, “But for now they're going to play the top-four.”

As for the doubles portion of the team, Eliassen said she was waiting for a couple of younger girls to be ready to play. “Once they've managed to get a little more experience in and grow their skills a little bit I think we'll be moving them into singles.”

The team that made up the No. 1 doubles against Riverside, March 23 in a 7-0 Medical Lake win and the Cards' only competed match this season, was composed of Jessica Kauffman and Briana Vinson. “They're stepping up quite a few rungs to be playing at No. 1 doubles,” Eliassen said.

“After that it's mostly new folks,” she said, declining to pinpoint any of the group that aspire to make any of the remaining open varsity slots.

The week after school is back in, “is going to be brutal,” Eliassen said. “We come back and play Clarkston on Tuesday (April 6), and then we have matches Thursday, Friday and Saturday. “It's going to be a long, action-packed week,” she added.

Against Riverside, No. 1 VanMeter rallied after an opening set 4-6 loss to beat Jessica Hogue 6-4, 6-0. Butler at No. 3 had a similar outing, losing her first set before rolling over Madison Mills 6-2, 6-0. Both VonLehe and Tareski won in straight sets

Jessica Kauffman and Briana Vinson won their No. 1 doubles' match in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0 as did Cassi Nilles and Kristi Kauffman, who were 6-1, 6-2 victors.

Angelica Ploegman and Lynsey Abbott wrapped up the sweep with 6-2, 6-2 victories at No. 3.

The Cardinals' busy return to play includes road matches at Deer Park, today, (Thurs., April 8) and Lake City on Saturday, both at 3:45 p.m. After that Medical Lake is home for four of their next five.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].