Warriors finish where they were seeded

Seedings turned out to be accurate Thursday in the North Subsection 8-2A tournament at Brainerd High School.

Brainerd's Devin Larson was seeded second and finished second in singles. Teammate Morgan Salo was seeded third and was third singles.

North Subsection 8-2A tennis

Highlights: Brainerd's Devin Larson was second in singles, Morgan Salo was third, and Corey Kuglin-Nathan Henningson were second in doubles.

Next: Brainerd vs. St. Michael-Albertville 9 a.m. Tuesday in Section 8-2A team semifinals, team championship 11:30 a.m.; individual tournament 2 p.m., at St. Cloud Apollo.

The Warriors' doubles team of Corey Kuglin-Nathan Henningson was seeded second and finished there.

All four advance to the section individual tournament, which opens Tuesday at St. Cloud Apollo and finishes Wednesday at the same location.

Thursday, Larson received a first-round bye before defeating Sartell's Andrew Ley 6-1, 6-0. He beat Salo in the semifinals 6-2, 6-3, before losing to top-seeded Tyler Hjalmquist of Moorhead 6-1, 6-3 in the final.

Hjalmquist, a sophomore left-hander, had a powerful serve and rarely committed unforced errors.

"He's got that lefty toss, spin, kick out wide," Larson said. "It's tough to get and it's really high up, then he's so patient too. He plays it back and plays it back with high top-spin shots, then he waits for his chance to strike and just blasts it wherever he wants."

Larson placed third in the subsection last season.

"I'm really happy with it," he said of finishing second. "I'll be in the bottom bracket (in the section), Hjalmquist will be in the top. Hopefully, I can get there to meet him in the finals again."

Salo received a bye Thursday before defeating Bemidji's Aaron Johnson 6-2, 6-0. He then ran into Larson.

"It's always hard playing your teammate," Salo said. "Third place is big for me. I'm really excited. I thought I played really well."

Salo, who was fourth in last year's subsection tournament, finished with a 6-3, 6-0 victory in the third-place match.

"I'm really happy," Salo said of finishing third. "My goal today was just to make it to sections, and I did that."

Kuglin-Henningson, who were second in the subsection last year, had a similar goal. After a bye they defeated Moorhead's Jarron Erdmann-Kegan Reiswig 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. They beat David Sanderson-Andrew McAllister of Fergus Falls 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the semis before losing to top-seeded Reggie Ronning-Connor Illies of Alexandria 6-0, 6-0.

"We didn't really care," Kuglin said. "We were already in sections. It wasn't that big of a deal if we got the seed up or not."

Henningson concurred.

"We tried not to think about winning that much," he said. "We just wanted to go out there and play our game."

Brainerd's doubles team of Jared Anderson-Michael Ruen won their opener before losing in the quarterfinals.

Singles

Opening round

Alex Hanson (Sartell) def. Ben Ronning (Fergus Falls) 6-4, 7-5; Jake Anderson (FF) def. Stephen Bucher (Bemidji) 6-0, 6-2; Aaron Johnson (Bem) def. Matt Peterson (Alex) 7-5, 6-3; Andrew Ley (Sart) def. Tom Mulvaney (Moor) 6-4, 6-0

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Tyler Hjalmquist (Moorhead) def. Alex Hanson 6-0, 6-0

No. 4 Luke Eberly (Alexandria) def. Jake Anderson 6-4, 6-1

No. 3 Morgan Salo (Brd) def. Aaron Johnson 6-2, 6-0

No. 2 Devin Larson (Brd) def. Andrew Ley 6-1, 6-0

Semifinals

Hjalmquist def. Eberly 6-0, 6-1; Larson def. Salo 6-2, 6-3

Championship

Hjalmquist def. Larson 6-1, 6-3

Third place

Salo def. Eberly 6-3, 6-0

Doubles

Opening round

Mike Holtan-Zach Mithun (Moor) def. Jordan Tommerdahl-Grant Torgerson (FF) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; Jared Anderson-Michael Ruen (Brd) def. Jake Otterness-Marvin Wensman (Alex) 6-3, 7-5; Ryan Rude-Adam Holter (Bem) def. Keaton Hauser-Andrew Reinholz (Sar) 6-0, 6-3; Jarrod Erdmann-Kegan Reiswig (Moor) def. Matt Nahan-Ryan Nahan (Sar) 6-0, 6-1

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Reggie Ronning-Connor Illies (Alex) def. Mike Holtan-Zach Mithun 2-6, 6-4, 6-3

No. 4 Sam Weaver-Ben Holter (Bem) def. Jared Anderson-Michael Ruen 4-6, 6-3, 6-3

No. 3 David Sanderson-Andrew McAllister (FF) def. Ryan Rude-Ben Holter 6-4, 7-6 (7-5)

No. 2 Nathan Henningson-Corey Kuglin (Brd) def. Jarrod Erdmann-Kegan Reiswig 6-4, 1-6, 6-2

Semifinals

Ronning-Illies def. Weaver-Holter 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Henningson-Kuglin def. Sanderson-McAllister 7-5, 7-6 (7-5)

Championship

Ronning-Illies def. Henningson-Kuglin 6-4, 6-2

Third place

Sanderson-McAllister def. Weaver-Holter 7-6 (8-6), 7-5