Panther girls’ tennis team stomps ND-WB

BURLINGTON - The Mt. Pleasant girls' tennis team had a nice trip down to Burlington on Thursday, picking up a 7-2 win over Notre Dame-West Burlington in their season opener.

The Panthers started the day off right, winning five of the varsity singles matches to clinch the win early on.

No. 2 player Hallie Sandeen had the most prestigious singles win of the night. She defeated Bethany Shane 8-5 in the No. 2 match. Shaleen Thiengmany won the No. 3 match 8-2 over Cortney Erickson.

Breanna Runyon took the No. 4 match 8-2 over Binita Gautum. Sierra Barton picked up an 8-1 victory in the No. 5 match against Abbi McAtee, and Olivia Larson took down Elle Rheinschmidt 8-2 in the No. 6 match.

The only singles lost went to Erin Zihlman, who has stepped up in the No. 1 spot. She fell 8-1 against MacKenzie Fry.

In doubles, the No. 2 team of Thiengmany and Runyon defeated Erickson and Gautum 8-3. The No. 3 doubles team of Barton and Larson also won, sweeping Shutu Xian and McAttee 8-0.

The No. 1 doubles team of Zihlman and Sandeen had a barnburner against Fry and Shane. They fell 9-8, losing the tiebreaker 7-3.

Junior varsity winners on the day were Madecyn Anderson, Mikayla Ackles and Samantha Broeker in singles play. The doubles team of Anderson and Ackles picked up a win, as did the doubles team of Maggie Fitzpatrick and Broeker.

The Panther girls will be at East Lake Park for their first home meet of the year on Monday, April 1. They'll take on Fairfield in what also will be their conference opener.