MITCHELL – Aberdeen Central won a pair of pivotal matches to open up doubles play and finished in third, fourth and fifth place during the Eastern South Dakota Conference tennis tournament at Hitchcock Park Wednesday morning.

The Golden Eagles were involved in three matches to start the day that on paper could have gone either way.

“You have all three matches in the 4-5 matchup and we had (prior) losses to every opponent,” said Central coach Trent Kurtz. “We knew it would be difficult, so to get two of those three, that was good, and we had chances in the third.”

A pair of Central squads avenged earlier losses with first round victories. Sekou Gogue and Jack Riggs grabbed a 10-4 win at flight two doubles.

“Sekou and Jack just absoluately played great tennis at two doubles as a team against a team that beat them earlier in the year,” Kurtz said. “Just dominated from the get go.”

The duo went on to a fourth place finish, losing in a tiebreak in their final match.

The duo of Preston Kreber and Sam Casper also gained a measure of revenge in their first match at flight three. They ended up finishing third.

“Preston and Sam are just really playing well right now. Sam is doing a great job up at the net. He’s really become a very good volleyer,” Kurtz said. “Preston is just overall playing well. He played well in singles (Tuesday) and is playing well in doubles right now.”

The top flight squad of Mitchell Hofer and AJ Prehn lost its first match in a break before rebounding to take fifth.

Harrisburg won the tournament. Central finished sixth with 125 points.

“We always seed it out before hand and we were only supposed to score 87 points,” Kurtz said. “We beat what we were supposed to get by 40 points almost.”

The Golden Eagles lost most of their matches that went to tiebreakers during the two-day event, but are playing well, according to Kurtz.

“It was a good couple of days for us,” Kurtz said, “but a chance to be really good and we were a few points away.”

Central is now off until competing in the state tournament next week in Sioux Falls.

Team Points: Harrisburg 360, Yankton 221.5, Brandon Valley 213.5, Watertown 160.5, Mitchell 152, Aberdeen Central 125, Huron 54, Pierre 3, Brookings 0.

DOUBLES

First Flight

MITCHELL HOFER-AJ PREHN: lost to Eli Woidyla-Cole Murray, Brandon Valley, 10-9 (7-2); def. Devin Dodson-Lucas Hight, Pierre, 8-0; def. Luke Jerke-Jager Juracek, Mitchell, 8-6. FIFTH PLACE.

Second Flight

SEKOU GOGUE-JACK RIGGS: def. Gibsen Eszlinger-Ben Gromer, Brandon Valley, 10-4; lost to Levi Loken-Drake Jerke, Mitchell, 10-2; lost to Evan Meester-Justin Remmers, Watertown, 8-7 (8-6). FOURTH PLACE.

Third Flight

PRESTON KREBER-HUNTER MILLER: def. Luke Moeller-Ethan Marsh, Yankton, 10-7; lost to Koleton Anderson-Cooper Rott, Harrisburg, 10-5; def. Tyler Dingsor-Sam Karst, Watertown, 8-6. THIRD PLACE.