RAPID CITY - Rapid City Stevens continued its tune-up process for the upcoming girls state high school tennis tournament blanking a rebuilding Rapid City Cobbler team 9-0 Tuesday at the Sioux Park courts.
The Raiders gave up just four games to the Cobblers in singles play, and six games in doubles matchups.
Stevens senior Lauren Shultz won her 104th varsity match moving past Mikala Henzlik for third on the Raider girls all-time list.
Central's No. 1 player, junior Hallie Sims, was sidelined with a sore elbow, so Cobbler sophomore Kim Lucas drew the assignment of taking on Shultz, who won 6-0, 6-0.
"I would really have liked to have played Hallie. She's a good player and I like playing her," Shultz said. "I hope she gets better."
Shultz teamed with Morgan Paluch to score a 6-0, 6-1 win over Dana Jakeway and Rochelle Flynn at No. 1 doubles.
"Me and Morgan started out good in doubles and had some fun," Shultz said. "When you get up for singles, you're in a good mood and ready to play."
Shultz said she doesn't pay attention to her career win total.
"I wasn't really keeping track," Shultz admitted. "It's what (Raider coach) Jason (Olson) tells me."
Paluch defeated Flynn 6-0, 6-2, at No. 2 singles.
Also victorious were Raider No. 3 Sydney Moyle, her 51st career win, No. 4 Cassie Malik, No. 5 Kelly Feehan and No. 6 Kelsie Dubon, as well as the doubles duos of Malik andFeehan and Moyle and Dubon.
"It's the final Cobbler-Raider matchup for some of these kids so it's kind of a big deal for them," said Olson. "Central's kind of a young team. They played hard against us.
"We just had to make sure we stay healthy, because seeding is so important at state. The girls did what they had to do today, so that was nice."
Cobbler coach Doug Lecy said of his four seniors, Flynn, Kaia Erickson, Kelsey Smith and Dana Jakeway, all but Flynn lacked varsity experience coming into the season, but the team has grown through the year.
"It's been a building process," Lecy said. "We've shown some improvement.
"(Sims) elbow has been bothering her, so she didn't play today. That hurts the team quite a bit. We're hoping to be healthy again for state."
"They've had a few close matches. Hallie could have had a shot at Lauren," he said.
A pair of exhibition matches gave the matchup an international flavor, and accounted for the Cobblers' lone win on the day, however unofficial.
Stevens exchange student Lisa Traub met Central exchange student Lilli Dorsch, both from Germany, with Traub winning 8-0.
Also on court for the Raiders was German exchange student Franziska Herzog, who won 8-4 over Central exchange student Anna Safronova, of Russia.
Dorsch picked up an 8-2 exhibition win over Stevens' Sami Sheely.
Stevens closes out the regular season against St. Thomas More/Rapid City Christian team on Saturday. Central travels to Spearfish on Thursday for its next action of the season.
The South Dakota State High School girls tennis tournament is scheduled for Oct. 9-11 in Rapid City.
Posted in Local on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 11:00 pm | Tags: Jim_holland, Rapid_city, Steven_central, Tennis
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