The Ellsworth Panthers tennis team placed fourth at this year’s Division 2 sectional tournament in Baldwin on Friday.

After finishing third in the Middle Border Conference Tournament, Ellsworth had several players advance through the subsectionals to compete for a chance to go to state.

Sectionals participants are comprised of winners from two subsectional competitions. In the Panthers’ case, they were the winners from the Baldwin and Altoona subsectionals, which had eight and nine schools competing at them respectively. 

With a fourth-place finish in the sectional tournament, they did not qualify to advance as a team. That being said, they still had multiple athletes advance to the individual round of state competition, which is held this Thursday through Saturday at Nielsen Stadium in Madison. In total, they had two doubles teams and two singles players make it all the way to the sectional tournament.

The Panthers #1 singles player Molly Janke was one of those who advanced. Janke, who was dealing with an injury at the end of the season, made it back in time to play in the Middle Border Conference Tournament where she took first place.

Janke continued to perform well at sectionals. She won her first match versus the #1 from Stevens Point Pacelli, 6-4 and 6-3, and that win qualified her to advance to state. She lost her next match to the #1 from Altoona, 6-2 and 6-2, and she also lost her final match versus the #1 from Eau Claire Regis, 6-2 and 6-4.

The state round of tournament play begins this week. Janke plays the #1 from Xavier in the first round at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Maria Harrington and Betsy Foster, the Panthers #1 doubles team, only needed one win to advance to state, but they ended up losing their first match to Assumption, 7-6 and 6-1. Nonetheless, they still qualified for state with an At Large bid the following day. 

At Large entrees are extra slots left open for teams or players who deserve to be there, even if they lost based on their record. For this, head-to-head records and comparable records are weighted against others that qualified. With this advancement, Harrington and Foster play a team from New Berlin West at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. 

If either Janke or the combination of Harrington and Foster win on Thursday, they will advance to the second round of the state tournament. In total there are five rounds: one on Thursday and two each on Friday and Saturday.

Katie Groen, Panthers #4 singles player, finished fourth in the conference tournament. Head Coach Brad Baker said that Groen started to play with more confidence after this strong finish to the season and qualifying for sectionals. She lost her first match to Altoona 6-0 and 6-1 at the sectional tournament, but won her next match against Baldwin, 6-3 and 6-3. That win earned her third place for the sectional round.

The Panthers #3 Doubles team of Rebecca Dendinger and Lilly Clark finished the conference tournament in third place. They had a tough day at sectionals though, losing both of their matches. The first was to Altoona, where they lost 6-1 and 6-0, and then to Stevens Point Pacelli with a final score of 7-6 and 6-1.