Lady Hounds open with win over BND

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC STAFF

FORT MADISON - The Fort Madison girls tennis team swept six singles matches to open the season Tuesday night on Fort Madison's courts.

The Lady Hounds took down Burlington-Notre Dame 8-1 with the only loss coming at No. 1 doubles.

Senior Larissa Ferrill knocked off the Nikes' McKenzie Fry 8-6 at No. 1 singles, while Lanie Kuntz took advantage of some stellar serving to keep Notre Dame's Bethany Shane off balance with an 8-3 win at No. 2 singles.

Fort Madison's Larissa Ferrill returns a shot in Tuesday's season opener for the Lady Hounds on the tennis courts. Ferrill would knock off Burlington Notre Dame's McKenzie Fry 8-6 as the Hounds rolled to an 8-1 team win. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PC

The two struggled getting in sync in doubles action however as Fry and Shane took that contest 9-7, for the Hounds only loss.

"I'm very pleased with how we performed as a team tonight. Notre Dame is a team who is traditionally tough and well-coached, so we're happy leaving here tonight on top," said first-year head coach Jeremy Swink.

"With any season opener there is some nerves and rust that need to get knocked off, but all-in-all our girls played well. There is always areas that we can improve in. A few that come to mind would be our team communication and chemistry with our doubles play."

Rounding out the singles varsity action, Zoe Ramatowski beat Joleen Kelly 8-1 at No. 3 and Lily Cadwallader won by the same score over the Nikes Binita Gautum. At No. 5 Kirklynn Nafziger shut out Frankie Taylor 8-0, and Fort Madison's Alyse Schmidt won 8-1 over Shuyu Xian.

The Lady Hounds Zoe Ramatowski hits a back-hand lob to the Nikes' Joleen Kelly in Ramatowski's 8-1 win at No. 3 singles Tuesday night. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

The Hounds shut out the Nikes in the final two varsity doubles matches on the day with Ramatowski and Nafziger downing Kelly and Gautum 8-0, and Cadwallader and Schmidt knocking off Taylor and Xian 8-0.

The girls host a 6-team invitational on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

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