Austin Packers girls tennis team competes at Big 9 Conference tournament

The Austin Packers girls tennis team traveled to the Rochester Outdoor Tennis Center Saturday to compete in the Big 9 Conference tournament, and high finishers for the Packers included Gracie Schmitt at No. 1 singles, who received a bye into the quarterfinals where she downed Cora McBroom of Northfield in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.  Schmitt then fell to Claire Lofthus, the No. 2 ranked player in the state in Class AA for the top-ranked Rochester Mayo Spartans 6-0, 6-0, and she then won the first set of the 3rd place match versus Ava Johnson of Red Wing 7-5 when the match was suspended due to darkness.  Head Coach Jeff Anderson stated that the match will not be resumed.

Abby and Katie VanPelt competed for Austin at No. 1 doubles where they fell to the Rochester John Marshall team of Aubrey Ackman and Kendra Kampmeier by the score of 6-2, 4-6 (5), but they rebounded to defeat the team of Emma Prihoda and Kallie Studier of Albert Lea 8-1 in the consolation quarterfinals.  They then received a bye into the consolation finals where they defeated the duo of Aundra Aarre and Haylee Steinfeldt of Winona by the identical 8-1 score to win the consolation title.

The Packers return to action today (Tuesday) in the first round of the Section 1AA team tournament, as the 13th seeded Packers travel to No. 4 seed Rochester Century.