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N.D. state girls tennis tournament: Anderson repeats

MINOT -- Samantha Anderson played No. 2 for the Grand Forks Red River girls tennis team during the regular season and finished second in the East Region individual tournament.

MINOT -- Samantha Anderson played No. 2 for the Grand Forks Red River girls tennis team during the regular season and finished second in the East Region individual tournament.

But Anderson still has her state tournament magic.

The Red River junior came through at the right time against teammate Mimi Yunker to earn a 6-0, 6-1 victory and her second straight state singles championship.

A week ago, Yunker beat Anderson in straight sets to win the East Region singles title.

It is the same scenario that happened a year ago -- Yunker beat Anderson for the East Region title, while Anderson beat Yunker at state.

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Yunker, a freshman, played No. 1 singles for state champion Red River during the season, but coach Tim Wynne insisted all along that it was a toss-up between the two.

The state's two dominant players reached the finals with relative ease.

Anderson beat Sarah Janes of Bismarck Century -- the West Region singles champion -- by the score of 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals. Yunker topped Fargo South's Karen Moe, who finished third in the East Region, 6-1, 6-4 to set up the showdown.

Anderson joined the club of repeat singles winners for the Roughriders. Previous to her two titles, UND's Callie Ronkowski won a pair. Prior to Ronkowski's titles, Iowa State's Liza Wischer won six straight singles titles.

Red River's other state tournament singles entrant, Cindy Lim, finished sixth.

Luk-Marasinghe repeat

The Roughriders also continued their dominance in the state doubles tournament as Shirlene Luk and Lalangi Marasinghe repeated as champs.

Luk and Marasinghe won the title without dropping a set, but they were pushed in the championship by the Bismarck St. Mary's team of Caitlin Bakke and Mary Roller, who won the West Region doubles title.

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The Roughrider duo won the first set 6-1, but Bakke and Roller forced a tiebreaker in the second. Luk and Marasinghe won it 7-4 to earn their second straight doubles crown.

Luk and Marasinghe reached the final by dominating Bismarck High's Alek and Erin Haugen 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals.

Red River's other doubles team, Alexis Caoili and Paige Relling, finished sixth.

With the individual titles on Saturday, the Roughriders completed another state tournament sweep -- team, singles and doubles titles. Red River won their 10th straight team title on Friday morning.

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