Bosma and Slack earn 5th place at State

Bri Slack and Karlie Bosma earned fifth place at State in Flight 2 doubles.

The Class A High School state tennis tournament was held Oct. 6 and 7 at Tomar Park in Sioux Falls.  All eleven Class A schools had their top six singles and top three doubles compete.  

Monday started off with doubles with all three flights playing at 8 a.m.  Brooke Buehner and Macy Wallenstein at Flight #1 came in as the #7 seed and took down Aberdeen Roncalli 6-1, 6-3 in their first round to put them into the quarterfinals against the #2 seed from Madison. The duo played well again, but the Bulldogs took the win, which put Buehner and Wallenstein in the 5th/6th place semifinals round against Pierre on Tuesday morning.  But unfortunately, Pierre proved to be too strong and took the win 10-4 to move on and end the O’s run.

Flight #2 doubles consisting of Karlie Bosma and Bri Slack also came in as the #7 seed.  

The duo took down Aberdeen Roncalli in the first round which put them in a match up vs the #2 seed from Rapid City Christian.

The O’s dropped the first set 1-6 but kept competing and got more aggressive and took the second set 7-6(5).  This put them into a match tiebreaker which went back and forth at the beginning, but in the end, the Comets were a little too strong and took the tie break win 10-5.  

This put the duo of Bosma and Slack in the 5th/6th place semifinals on Tuesday where they took down Milbank 10-2, and then in the next round in a back-and-forth match they battled with Huron, and in the end scored the win 10-8 to earn a fifth place podium spot.  

Flight #3 doubles consisting of Miriam Welch & Ella Ellwein came in as the #8 seed.  In their first-round matchup they took down the #9 seed from Milbank in a close battle 6-4, 7-6(2).  This put them in the quarterfinal’s vs the #1 seed from Sioux Falls Christian, where the Chargers proved to be too strong and took the win.  This put the O’s in the 5th/6th place semifinals on Tuesday vs the #5 seed from Huron, where the Tigers took the win 10-4. 

In singles, Buehner came in as the #9 seed which gave her a match-up versus the #8 seed from Spearfish.  The marathon match went back and forth with Buehner claiming the first set 6-4, then Spearfish taking the second set 6-4.  This put them into a match tiebreaker where points just seemed to fall for Spearfish more often than not, which gave them the win 10-3.  This put Buehner into the consolation round where she had two byes to set her into the consolation finals on Tuesday.  Here she was matched up vs Huron and took the win 10-7 to earn the consolation championship. 

Bosma at Flight #2 came in as the #6 seed and took down the #11 seed from Milbank 6-1, 6-2 in her first round.  Then in the quarterfinals she was matched up vs the #3 seed from Rapid City Christian, Bosma competed hard but fell 2-6, 3-6 to put her into the 5th/6th place semifinals on Tuesday.  Here she took down Roncalli 10-6 to move onto the 5th/6th place finals vs Spearfish.  Bosma stayed aggressive and competed hard, but in the end, Spearfish took the win 10-4, giving Bosma sixth at State.   

At Flight #3 Wallenstein came in as the #4 seed which gave her a bye in the first round, and a second-round match-up vs #5 seed from Pierre. This match was competitive and had some big points that could have gone either way, but Pierre ended up taking the win 6-2, 6-3.  This put Wallenstein into the 5th/6th place semifinals on Tuesday vs Vermillion.  This match started out back and forth and was competitive, but in the end, Vermillion took the win 10-6.  

At Flight #4 Slack earned the #5 seed and a first round bye.  This put her into the quarterfinal’s vs the #4 seed from Rapid City Christian.  But unfortunately, this was a tough match-up, and Christian took the win 6-1, 6-2.  This put Slack into the 5th/6th place semifinals on Tuesday vs Vermillion.  This match was a close one from the start and went back-and-forth the whole time, but in the end, Vermillion had a few extra points go their way and took the win 10-8.

At flight #5 Welch came in as the #7 seed and took care of the #10 seed from Milbank 6-3, 6-2 in her first-round match.  This put her up against the #2 seed from Vermillion, where Vermillion took the win 6-2, 6-0.  This put Welch into the 5th /6th place semifinals on Tuesday vs Rapid City Christian.  Welch played well and had a good match, but Christian took the match 10-4 to move on.

At flight #6 Ellwein came in as the #6 seed and took care of the #11 seed from Spearfish 6-1, 6-1 in the first round.  This put her up against the #3 seed from Roncalli, where Ellwein competed hard and the match was close, but in the end, Roncalli took the win 6-3, 6-4.  This put Ellwein into the 5th/6th place semifinals vs Huron on Tuesday.  Ellwein played another strong match, but Huron proved to be too consistent throughout the match and took the win 10-5.  

The O’s ended the season with a 5-6 record and an eighth place finish at the state tournament.