KINGSFORD and IRON MOUNTAIN — The Escanaba Eskymos girls’ tennis team split a pair of matches on the road Monday against the Miners in Kingsford and the Mountaineers in Iron Mountain.

The Eskymos absorbed an 8-0 loss against Negaunee but rebounded with a 6-2 victory over Iron Mountain.

A recent rain delay created the doubleheader for the Eskymos, said coach Chris Ogren.

“We played two matches today as we had to make up a match with Negaunee that had been rained out last week,” Ogren commented. “We had a meet scheduled for today in Iron Mountain, so we decided to meet with Negaunee at Kingsford’s courts today for the makeup. We didn’t come away with any wins against Negaunee, but we had a lot of close sets and two different three-set matches.”

Escanaba bounced back against Iron Mountain.

“We followed up our match with Negaunee by playing Iron Mountain,” said Ogren. “We were able to get six wins against a really solid Iron Mountain team.”

A couple of the highlights of the day’s second match was the No. 3 doubles match between Escanaba’s Sonya Maki and Leslie Purcell and Iron Mountain’s Anika Cameron and Kensie St. John and the performance of No. 3 singles competitor Lizzy Sliva, said Ogren.

“Our (No.) 3 doubles team was able to win their match in a third set tiebreak today. Sonya and Leslie really battled back well after dropping the first set,” he said. “We also saw a nice third set win at (No.) 3 singles from Lizzy Sliva, who has certainly played her fair share of close matches this year.”

With U.P. Finals tomorrow, Ogren commented the team was all on the same page about preparation, especially after the loss against Negaunee.

“It’s always tough when you lose 8-0, but we know that we get to see this team again at U.P. Finals on Wednesday, and we’ll have another shot,” he said. “The whole team understands that today was about getting better and that our real test will be to play at our absolute best at U.P. Finals.”

Vs. Negaunee

Singles

No. 1 — Nelson, N, def. Derkos, 6-2, 3-6, 2-6; No. 2 — Drew, N, def. Williams, 6-4, 6-0; No. 3 — Kantola, N, def. Sliva, 6-4, 6-0; No. 4 — Enright, N, def. Manninen, 6-0, 6-2.

Doubles

No. 1 — Miller-Austin, N, Wickham-Hill, 7-5, 6-1; No. 2 — Harris-Levra, N, def. Moore-VanDamme, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; No. 3 — Lundeth-Frustaglio, N, def. Purcell-Maki, 6-3, 6-4; No. 4 — Johnson-Schultz, N, def. Bullen-Newhouse, 6-3, 6-2.

Vs. Iron Mountain

Singles

No. 1 — Derkos, E, def. Bianco, 6-2, 6-1; No. 2 — Burgoon, IM, def. Williams, 6-4, 6-0; No. 3 — Sliva, E, Brown, 6-2, 5-7, 10-5; No. 4 — Manninen, E, def. Lofholm 7-5, 6-4.

Doubles

No. 1 — Wickham-Hill, E, def. Brown-Kleiman, 6-2, 6-2; No. 2 — Juul-Husing, N, def. Moore-McIntyre, 6-4, 6-1; No. 3 — Purcell-Maki, E, def. Cameron-St. John, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 12-10; No. 4 — Bullen-Newhouse, E, Greenleaf-Vedin, 6-1, 6-0.