Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Natalie Williams returns a ball during a No. 1 singles match against Kingsford Thursday in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — The Escanaba team made up for a tie earlier in the season and swept the Flivvers 8-0 Thursday in Escanaba.

“Another solid day from the Esky tennis team,” Esky coach Chris Ogren said. “We split with Kingsford 4-4 when we played back at the beginning of the season, so I wasn’t sure just how we’d stack up today. Our girls really came to play though and did a great job of finishing off every set they played.”

The competition was fiercest at No. 4 doubles where Kingsford’s Lexie Vross and Ellyce Doenier, after dropping the first set 6-4, nearly forced a third set — but fell short, 7-5.

“Today was tough,” Flivvers coach Tracy Rutter said. “(I’m) hoping they take something positive away from it and apply (that experience) going forward.”

Ogren praised his No. 4 duo’s resolve in difficult conditions.

“The wind was strong today, so the match was as much about mental toughness in the elements as it was about the ability to hit the tennis ball,” he said. “Our No. 4 doubles team of Paxton Bullen and Lily Newhouse did a great job of beating a tough Kingsford team today. We had lost to the Kingsford No. 4 doubles team twice this year, and this was the first time we were able to beat them.”

Ogren noted that Esky’s Lizzy Sliva had the longest match of the day against Kingsford’s Jenna Olkkonen at No. 3 singles (6-2, 6-4).

“Lizzy Sliva played the longest match of the day at No. 3 singles, and despite being plenty tired by the end, she finished strong,” he said.

Rutter noted the importance of the stretch of the season teams are approaching.

“We are coming into the final stretch of the season,” she said. “Today was definitely (a step) in the wrong direction. (We were) giving points away by losing on serves and just being too defensive and hitting them out. (We) need to regroup as a team and start playing like (we) were earlier in the season.”

Ogren also pointed out the approaching Great Northern Conference Championship.

“With GNCs right around the corner next week (Wednesday), we need to be playing our best tennis, and Right now, the girls are putting in the necessary effort to see good results.

Escanaba hosts Negaunee Monday, and Kingsford visits Marquette.

Singles

No. 1 — Derkos, E, def. Blaskowski, 6-0, 6-0; No. 2 — Williams, E, def. Dooley, 6-1, 6-1; No. 3 — Sliva, E, def. Olkkonen, 6-2, 6-4; No. 4 — Manninen, E, def. Rizzo, 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles

No. 1 — Wickham-Hill, E, def. Janousek-Cram, 6-0, 6-1; No. 2 — Moore-McIntyre, E, def. Holmes-Menghini, 6-1, 6-0, No. 3 — Purcell-Maki, E, def. Rutter-Grubb, 6-2, 6-0; No. 4 — Bullen-Newhouse, E, def. Vross-Doenier, 6-4, 7-5.