Hegg, Cersosimo take consolation titles at state

SIOUX FALLS — Junior Amanda Hegg and senior Kendra Cersosimo did not lose a match during the second day of the girls’ state tennis tournament.

Hegg and Cersosimo each won three singles matches and combined to win two doubles matches.

That resulted in both players winning the consolation titles in their flights, and they will play for the consolation doubles title in Flight 1 at 12:30 p.m. today.

Hegg won the consolation title in Flight 1 singles and Cersosimo won the title in No. 3 singles.

“They both played very well,” Mitchell coach Pat Moller said. “They were victims of some rotten luck with their draws in the first round and both got beat by some tough opponents.

“They came back (Friday) and won three matches each. I couldn’t be happier, and they both worked hard for it.”

In the Flight 1 doubles, Hegg and Cersosimo beat Sioux Falls Lincoln 10-7 in their first match on Friday and then beat Pierre 10-8 to reach the consolation championship.

“They beat Pierre to get into that match, and they lost to them earlier this year, so that was big,” Moller said.

The Kernels finished with 163 points on the day and were in 12th place as a team. Rapid City Stevens leads the team race with 566.5 points.

The Flight 2 team of Courtney Wells and Kayla White lost to Milbank in their first match of the day to get knocked out of the tournament.

Abby Yahne and Chelsea Kracht teamed up in the Flight 3 doubles, but lost their first match of the day to Pierre — 6-2, 6-0. Brandon Valley beat Yahne and Kracht 10-2 in the next match to eliminate the two from competition.

“Those two were leading for most of that first set against Pierre and were playing well, they just lose in the end,” Moller said. “The second set looks worse than it was. Those two played well.”

In singles competition, Wells, playing in Flight 2, lost to Valerie Robinson 10-8 in her first match of the day and was eliminated.

In Flight 4 singles, Kracht won her first match of the day in the consolation bracket, 10-2 against Huron’s Claire Hoogland. But Kracht lost her next match to Brandon Valley’s Haylee Thomas 11-9 and was eliminated from the tournament.

Grace Grabenstein won her first match of the day in the consolation round of the Flight 6 singles. She beat Huron’s Alison Fenske 10-4 before losing to Aberdeen Roncalli’s Gaby Imbery 10-4 and was knocked out of the tournament.

Tags: sports, updates, kernels, tennis