BROOKLYN CENTER – Laurie Alonso faced the best, defending state champion Jeanette Cluskey of Edina, in the opening round of the Minnesota State Tennis tournament Friday morning.

Sunday, October 31, 1999

BROOKLYN CENTER – Laurie Alonso faced the best, defending state champion Jeanette Cluskey of Edina, in the opening round of the Minnesota State Tennis tournament Friday morning. Alonso showed she could play with the best in the first set, but Cluskey came out on top, overall, 6-4, 6-2.

"Laurie played well," Austin tennis coach Deb Hoyt said. "She gained so much experience."

Alonso was nervous at the start of the match quickly dropping the first two games. She then got things rolling with some big returns and running down sure winners to get back control on a number of points. She got the set back to even by breaking and then holding serve. She then had chances to go up a break on Cluskey’s next two service games.

"Laurie handled Cluskey’s serve," Hoyt said. "She didn’t have problems with her serve after practicing with Mark Prosen who also has a big left handed kick serve on Wednesday. If Laurie’s first serve was on that first set it would have been even closer. When she did get in a first serve she was in control of the point."

Alonso was up 40-15 in game five and 40-love in the seventh game. Cluskey, however, was able to win the big points with some big top spin shots that scooted off all the lines of the court.

"I told myself I needed just one more point," Alonso said. "She is a really great player and made the plays on the big points."

Cluskey had a lot less trouble holding her serve to go up 5-4 and then broke Alonso to win the first set.

Cluskey’s string of game wins reached six when she won the first four games of the second set. Alonso finally got on the board with a running forehand cross court passing shot that got applause from her opponent and the crowd. The winner secured a break. There were breaks of serves the rest of the way.

"This was really fun," Alonso said. "There were a lot of really good points, a lot of nice points."

In the quarterfinals Cluskey needed three sets to beat Jessica Shepard of Eagan. On Saturday she won her second straight Class AA singles championship with a 6-0, 7-5 win over teammate Jane Anderson. Anderson played at the No. 2 singles spot for the Hornets as an eighth-grader.

Edina won the team championship on Thursday with a 6-1 win over Rochester Mayo.

"I can tell the girls that we lost to the second place team in the state," Hoyt said about the result. "We came that close."

Austin was beaten in the finals of the Section 1AA tourney by the Spartans.