HARRISBURG – The Aberdeen Central tennis team had a tough time weathering the storm on Tuesday.

The Golden Eagles won four matches before a pair of rain delays and managed just one victory following that in dropping a pair of duals, falling to Harrisburg 5-4, and then losing to Sioux Falls Christian 8-1.

“We’ve played in colder stuff, but that was as windy as we’ve ever played for a long stretch,” said Central coach Trent Kurtz. “We did not do a very good job of handling it. I thought our opponents handled it a lot better than us.”

The day got off to a solid start as the Eagles won four of their first seven matches against Harrisburg.

Play began in doubles where the number two team of Mitchell Hofer and AJ Prehn scored a 10-7 victory.

“We got a very good win from two doubles. They played really well. That was a fun match,” Kurtz said. “Two really good teams, a lot of deuce points both ways, high quality doubles, especially for flight two. It was a very good win for AJ and Mitchell.”

Central then won three of the four singles matches on the four courts that were available because of another dual going on. Gabe Goetz won at number one singles, Taye Cundiff won at number six, and Prehn pulled off a dramatic win at number four singles with a 7-3 tie-breaker win.

Prehn had a lead, lost it and then was able to finish off his foe in the breaker.

“I was a little worried because he lost actually a match point on deuce and then was able to battle back and come back and win the match later,” Kurtz said, “so that was good that he didn’t hang his head and pout. He was able to regroup and win that.”

That’s when the first of two weather delays took place. When play resumed, Central struggled.

Kurtz said the windy conditions made play extremely difficult.

“The ball was moving all over the place,” Kurtz said. “We didn’t handle it well.”

The Eagles lost both of their singles matches against Harrisburg and then got off to a slow start against SFC before another brief delay.

Central was tied 5-5 at number one doubles, down 3-4 at number two, and tied 7-7 at number three when play was halted.

“We came out of that delay and played poorly to start, lost all three of those doubles matches in the first 15 minutes of play resuming,” Kurtz said. “I’ve got to figure out a way to get us out of weather delays, because we were bad both times.”

Hofer recorded a win in the final match of the day, defeating his foe 10-5 at number three singles.

The Eagles are scheduled to host a triangular against Sioux Falls Lincoln and Watertown on Thursday at the Holgate Courts, weather permitting. Central will also be home on Monday when it hosts Brandon Valley and O’Gorman in a triangular at Holgate.

Harrisburg 5, Aberdeen Central 4

Singles

Gabe Goetz, AC, def. Alex Rallis, 10-4.

Maverick Rayon, H, def. Ian Ahlberg, 10-3.

Marcus Halling, H, def Mitchell Hofer, 10-6.

AJ Prehn, AC, def. Braden Rausch, 10-9 (7-3).

Justin Ptak, H, def. Jack Riggs, 10-7.

Taye Cundiff, AC, def. Colton Anderson, 10-8.

Doubles

Rallis-Halling, H def. Goetz-Ahlberg, 10-6.

Hofer-Prehn, AC, def. Rayon-Rausch, 10-7.

Ptak-Anderson, H, def. Riggs-Sekou Gogue, 10-5.

Sioux Falls Christian 8, Aberdeen Central 1

Singles

Landon Levenhagen, SFC, def. Gabe Goetz, 10-3.

Daniel Puumala, SFC, def. Ian Ahlberg, 10-0.

Mitchell Hofer, AC, def. Jadon Munson 10-5.

Grant Santema, SFC, def. AJ Prehn, 10-6.

James Woodward, SFC, def. Jack Riggs, 11-10 (8-6).

Jack Squires, SFC, def. Taye Cundiff, 10-4.

Doubles

Levenhagen-Puumala, SFC, def. Goetz-Ahlberg, 10-7.

Munson-Santema, SFC, def. Hofer-Prehn, 10-6.

Woodward-Aidan Ligtenberg, SFC, def. Riggs-Sekou Gogue, 11-9.