Wayzata girls win medals in Section 6AAA tennis

Wayzata High girls tennis coach Kathleen Farmer was thrilled to see five of her girls win medals in last week’s Section 6AAA Individual Tournament at Inner City Tennis Center in Minneapolis.

Two of the five medal winners are moving on to state this week. Senior Nikole Nazarevych and ninth-grader Melody Le were runners-up in Section 6AAA. They played Edina’s Bella Loucks and Sophia Zeng in the finals. After winning the first set 6-1, the Trojans lost the other two sets 6-3, 7-5.

“We were up 4-1 in the third set, then the moment got pretty big,” coach Farmer said. “If we had won that match, we would have been one of the seeded teams at state. Now we go into state as an unseeded team.”

In addition to the silver section medals won by Nazarevych and Le, the Trojans added bronze medals in both singles and doubles.

Junior Avika Hasti won bronze in singles. After losing to Minneapolis Washburn’s Olivia McDonald in the semifinals, Hasti won a 6-3, 6-3 decision over Hopkins’ junior Leighton Strasburg in the third-place match.

Julia Borchardt also played section singles for Wayzata, but had the misfortune of running into the eventual champion Rashi Singh of Edina in the second round. Borchardt came into that match after beating Bloomington Jefferson’s Etta Woodford 6-2, 6-0 in the opening round.

Wayzata’s other doubles entry, seniors Joy Zhou and Morgan Berge, reached the semifinals before losing to Edina’s Loucks and Zeng 6-2, 6-1.

In a match for a true second place, the Wayzata’s doubles teams were matched against one another with a trip to state on the line. Nazarevych and Le won the first set 6-2. When Zhou suffered an injury in the second set, her side had to withdraw from the match.

What is the outlook for state doubles?

“Nikole and Melody really enjoy playing together,” coach Farmer said.

Moving from Inner City to Baseline this week offers a new challenge for the players. “The courts at Baseline are slower than the courts at Inner City,” coach Farmer explained. “Our kids have always loved playing at Baseline.”