A tired and shorthanded Riverland tennis team head into a weeklong break on a losing note, dropping a 6-3 decision to host Ridgewater Tuesday afternoon.

"I thought the girls played a pretty good match against a tough team," said Riverland head coach Suzy Hebrink, "they get back everything you hit at them back, which really wore us down."

In singles, Tiffany Ankeny had a big 6-1, 6-3 win in the #4 slot, while Gretchen Hansen dropped a three set match to Ridgewater's top player Nicole Brandt. With the Bednar sisters unavailable, Stacy Felt stepped in at #6 singles and won her match 11-9 in the final set.

"They played hard at singles, but we just came up short today," said Hebrink.

On the doubles side, the top team of Hansen and Ankeny scored the only win of the afternoon for the Blue Devils, a hard-fought 7-6, 6-4 win ove Brandt and Eva Quist.

"On the bright side, we finally have some time off now before our next match," Hebrink said,

"plus playing all these matches in a row should help us prepare for the regional tournament."

The 5-2 Blue Devils are back in action Tuesday at Northwestern before hosting the regionals next Friday at Westcott Field and Ellis Middle School.