Lakeland’s women’s tennis team lost two Northern Athletics Conference matchups on Saturday, Sept. 12 at Howards Grove High School. The Muskies lost 2-7 to Dominican and 2-7 to Concordia Chicago.

Nicole Shavlik won at No. 1 singles 6-3 before her opponent retired and the No. 1 doubles team of Shavlik and April Schmitz won 8-6 against Concordia Chicago.

Lakeland lost in their other singles matches. Schmitz lost 4-6, 2-6 at No. 2, Alyssa Schuttenhelm lost 0-6, 0-6 at No.3, Cassie Felton lost 3-6, 1-6 at No. 4, Nikesha Gardner lost 0-6, 0-6 at No. 5, and Grace Jairo lost 0-6, 1-6 at No. 6. The team of Felton and Schuttenhelm lost 4-8 at No. 2 doubles while Sam Luedtke-Wegner and Lauren Hibbard lost 0-8, 0-8 at No. 3.

Lakeland lost 2-7 to Dominican, once again getting their two wins from Shavlik 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and from Shavlik and Schmitz at first doubles by a score of 8-4.

In the other matches, Schmitz lost 2-6, 4-6 at No. 2 singles, Felton lost 1-6, 0-6 at No. 3, Shuttenhelm lost 5-7, 3-6 at No. 4, Jairo lost 0-6, 1-6 at No. 5, and Erica Brown lost 0-6, 0-6 at No. 6.

The doubles team of Felton and Schuttenhelm lost 3-8 at No. 2 and, at No. 3 doubles, Hibbard and Katelin Minton lost 2-8.

Coach Leigh Cherveny was happy about the progress his less experienced girls have made thus far and praised the play of his top players.

“Nicole is 5-0 right now due to her all-court coverage and her aggressiveness,” Cherveny said. “Her and April are 3-2 in doubles and have a real good chance to go undefeated the rest of the year.

“April was a doubles specialist in high school, but she still has some of the cleanest ground strokes I’ve seen.”

Cherveny praised the play of Cassie Felton and Alyssa Schuttenhelm, who have been switching between No. 3 and No. 4 singles so far this year.

“Cassie hasn’t played in 4 years but has made remarkable strides in the last 2 weeks and Alyssa, who is probably the best athlete on our team has been real easy to work with,” Cherveny said.

The tennis team will be in action again on Friday, Sept. 18 at Marian University at 4 p.m.