Girls Tennis: A long time coming

Megan Stivers served up a  6-2, 7-6 (2) win at No. 1 singles (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Jack Olwell, who has been at the helm of the Tiger tennis program for the better part of three decades, isn't saying Farmington had never defeated Red Wing. It's just that he can't remember when.

"I'm not sure," he said. "maybe during the days of Jackie Engebretson but truthfully I don't recall. If we did, it was a long time ago."

The subject is now a moot point thanks to an exciting 4-3 Tiger victory over the Wingers Tuesday afternoon at the windy Boeckman Middle School courts.

Farmington won three of four singles matches and carved out another victory at first doubles to push its record to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in Missota Conference play.

"What made this special was the number of players who had to overcome deficits," Olwell said. "We ended up coming back from a long way down in the second set at first, second, and third singles to secure unlikely victories in each flight....The wind produced some pretty wild points but we managed to use it well."

All three of the singles points came in straight sets but none of them came easy. Megan Stivers (No.1 and Callie Olmscheid (No.3) won in tie-breakers in their second set and Ryan Jara (No. 2) battled back from a 1-4 deficit to win her second 6-4.

The first doubles tandem of Clare Padrnos and Lindsey Fairchild provided the fourth Farmington point with  a 6-1, 6-2 triumph.

"This is probably the most rewarding win I have been associated with and not just because Red Wing was such a tough opponent," Olwell said. "The real satisfaction was watching our players fight through all the difficulty and not lose heart when things were going poorly."