Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall singles No. 1 Taylor DePover hits a serve during a match against Millbank's Hope Karels on Aug. 25 in Marshall.

MARSHALL – The Marshall girls tennis team finished off a packed first week of action on Friday morning with a pair of wins in their home opener, taking down Lac qui Parle Valley 5-2 and Millbank 6-1.

The Tigers had played six matches since Saturday morning going into the triangular but looked anything but tired. Since their 1-2 start, the Tigers have now won five out of six matches.

“[It’s] good for the confidence. Obviously, there’s going to be some different levels of competition that we’re going to run into as we continue through the year but these teams are still solid teams,” Marshall head coach Alex Cleppe said. “You’ve got to play the schedule and we like playing good competition and we like playing often.”

In the Tigers’ early matchup against LQPV, Marshall got three decisive wins in the singles matchups. Taylor DePover won her singles No. 1 matchup over Hannah Die 6-4, 6-3, Siri Christensen won No. 3 against Sadie Hacker 6-0, 6-2 and Justine Kirst won the No. 4 matchup against Elsie Wiebe 6-3, 6-1.

Naomi Schroeder fell short in three sets in singles No. 2 against Kayla Jahn, 6-2, 2-6, 10-8, but avenged her loss with a straight-sets win over Jenna Korstjens, 6-0, 6-2, in the afternoon matchup against Milroy.

“She’s really showing a good progression and going in the right direction,” Cleppe said. “I think last year she was playing three singles for us and she competed, she battled out there, but she didn’t see the results on the matches that she wanted to see. This year, she’s kind of stepped up her level of play and it’s been fun to see.

“I even told her that last night after the River Valley match. I said, ‘Naomi, you’re doing an awesome job. You’ve really progressed this last year.’… It’s been good for our team and good for her to be able to grow and go into that role here as a senior.”

In the doubles matches against LQPV, Eliza Holmgren and Olivia Penske took down Tayla Jorgenson and Gertie Sieg in doubles No. 1 7-5, 6-4. Reese Graven and Lily Verkinderen also picked up a win in doubles No. 3, 6-0, 6-1.

Aubrey Schaefer and Reagan Boerboom battled but fell short against Alexis Olesen and Naya Virji in their doubles matchup, 6-5, 6-3.

While Marshall won fairly handily in the first set of matches, they ran away with their afternoon matchup against Millbank.

In addition to Schroeder, Christensen and Reese Graven also picked up singles wins in straight sets for Marshall.

Christensen went for a perfect 6-0, 6-0 win over Caityn Frerichs in singles No. 3 and Graven wasn’t far behind, going 6-1, 6-0 over Jericho Jones in singles No. 4.

DePover fell short in three sets in singles No. 1 against Hope Karels. DePover struggled in the first set, dropping it 6-1, but battled back for a 6-4 win in set two. Yet, she was unable to come away with the tiebreaker victory in a 10-5 defeat.

Still, a straight sweep of the doubles matches allowed Marshall to coast to a win. Schaefer and Boerboom once again won in straight sets, winning 6-4, 5-0, while Verkinderen and Bailyn Parsons won their matchup 6-1, 6-0.

Eliza Holmgren and Olivia Penske faced a little bit more fight from their opponents, Amelia Pederson and Ashlynn Lamp, but came away with a 6-1, 5-7, 10-4 win.

While there’s always room for improvement, Cleppe said he was pleased with how his team has played so far this season.

“If we could figure out a way to cool the air temperature down about 10 degrees, that would be nice,” Cleppe said with a laugh when asked about adjustments to make before their next match. He added that the team won’t have much practice time over the next week but that fundamentals will continue to be a focus.

Marshall (6-3) will return to their home court when they host MACCRAY on Monday at 4 p.m.