PIERRE – Aberdeen Central served up a solid start to its tennis season on Friday. The Golden Eagles fell to two-time defending State AA champion Rapid City Stevens 7-2 before blanking Spearfish 9-0.

Even in the setback to Stevens, Central coach John Vogel was happy with how his squad competed.

“We were really pleased with how we played against Stevens,” Vogel said. “They’ve been beating us 8-1 for years.”

Central won a pair of matches and nearly grabbed a few more.

The day started out with doubles and the Central squad of Laney Gonsor and Olivia Geyer grabbed a tiebreaker victory at third flight. While Vogel said there will be some movement at that flight, he was pleased with what he saw from the duo.

“Olivia Geyer and Laney were impressive,” Vogel said.

The Eagles fell in two competitive matches at the other doubles flights, losing one 10-8 and the other 10-7.

“Ones and twos were both down but they came back and played way better the second-half of the match to make those competitive,” Vogel said.

He said while both teams have different lineups from last season, the Golden Eagles made strides compared to a year ago.

“This is the Stevens team who creamed us in doubles last year,” Vogel said.

The singles portion was highlighted by Avery Tennant’s dominant victory at second flight, where she doubled up her foe 10-5.

Central then won every flight against Spearfish, although the Eagles had to work for them against the Spartans.

“They look young,” Vogel said, “but they’re spunky.”

Tennant got off to a slow start in her match, but finished strong to win her second singles match to start the season.

“Avery played great down the stretch in that match,” Vogel said. “Everyone else kind of did what they needed to do.”

Central has two more duals in Pierre today, facing Rapid City Central and Rapid City Christian.

The Eagles will look to build on efforts from their opening matches.

“We just needed to play different people. We did and I really liked what we saw,” Vogel said. “We played well. There’s plenty of room for improvement. We’ve got lots of stuff to work on, but it was very solid day for us.”

Rapid City Stevens 7, Aberdeen Central 2

Singles

Peyton Ogle, RCS, def. Julia Knie, 10-3.

Avery Tennant, AC, def. Sylvie Mortimer, 10-5.

Bella Scott, RCS, def. Laney Gonsor, 10-8.

Ella Potvin, RCS, def. Reese Comstock, 10-1.

Maddy Marsh, RCS, def. Livia Douglas, 10-5.

Claudia Werner, RCS, def. Riley O’Keefe, 10-8.

Doubles

Ogle-Scott, RCS, def. Knie-Tennant, 10-7.

Mortimer-Potvin, RCS, Comstock-Douglas, 10-8.

Gonsor-Olivia Geyer, AC, def. Marsh-Werner, 10-9 (10-8).

Aberdeen Central 9, Spearfish 0

Singles

Julia Knie, AC, def. Katie Mondloch, 10-1.

Avery Tennant, AC, def. Ava Iszler, 10-6.

Laney Gonsor, AC, def. Ella Iszler, 10-3.

Reese Comstock, AC, def. Allie Mondloch, 10-2.

Livia Douglas, AC, def. Lena McCabe, 10-0.

Riley O’Keefe, AC, def. Emma Gotlobb, 10-0.

Doubles

Knie-Tennant, AC, def. K. Mondloch-A. Mondloch, 10-2.

Comstock-Douglas, AC, def. A. Iszler-E. Iszler, 10-3.

Gonsor-Addison O’Keefe, AC, def. McCabe-Gotlobb, 10-3.