Eagan girls' tennis advances in Class 2A after win in marathon singles match

In the grand scheme of things, what Eagan sophomore Samantha Nichols' 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory in 3 hours, 12 minutes over Rochester Mayo freshman Jessica Marmorstein meant was simply a chance to play one more day.

Nichols' victory Tuesday broke a 3-3 deadlock in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A team championship, lifting the No. 4-seeded Wildcats into the team semifinals on Wednesday morning. They will play in the semifinals at 8 a.m. against top-seeded Prior Lake, which had little trouble in dispatching Princeton, 7-0.

"I told her after the match not to smile. We haven't done anything yet," Eagan coach Scott Nichols said. "Our goal is to match the boys' teams and get a banner up in our gym. We have to play well against Prior Lake tomorrow to do that."

Nichols was clearly in coach-speak mode. The father in him admitted that watching his daughter battle through the ebbs and flows of such an epic match was difficult to bear.

"Torturous," Nichols said. "With her, less is more. The team voted her as our team MVP for a reason. It's always best if I keep my mouth shut."

Eagan and Mayo were tied 3-3, with every other match completed, yet Nichols and Marmorstein were still in the second set. As the match wore on, the next match of the day — Edina vs. St. Cloud Tech — couldn't wait any longer to begin and started play.

By the time Nichols and Marmorstein reached the third set, stands at Baseline Tennis Center were filled, the match resembling a singles championship. With her opponent playing aggressively, the defensive-minded Nichols failed to close out four match points before emerging with the victory when Marmorstein, who had been tremendous with her shot placement, missed down the alley.

"At the beginning, what hurt her was not playing well defensively," Scott Nichols said. "It wasn't Wildcat tennis. We stress getting one more ball back. She was better when the second set started."

Despite the tightness of the match and what was riding on it, Samantha Nichols said there was only one time when she felt nervous. "I could feel the pressure after a couple of match points, but I knew I had to keep pushing for my team," she said.

With the team result foremost in her mind, Nichols at first placed the victory among the top two in her career. After a few moments, she elevated it to No. 1. "Probably the biggest because of everything that was riding on it," she said.

In the other half of the Class 2A bracket, 18-time defending champion Edina, the No. 2-seed, won its 55th consecutive state tournament match, defeating St. Cloud Tech 6-1. The Hornets will face No. 3-seeded Mahtomedi, which beat first-time entrant Delano 5-2, in Wednesday's semifinals at 10 a.m. The two teams played each other in late September, with Edina winning 6-1.

There were no surprises in the Class 1A quarterfinals. In the upper bracket, Rochester Lourdes defeated Virginia 6-1 and will play Blake, which defeated defending champion Holy Family 6-1, in an 8 a.m. semifinal match Wednesday. The lower-bracket semifinal, at 10 a.m., will pit St. James, a 7-0 victor over Foley, against Crookston, which defeated Minnewaska/Brandon-Evansville 5-2.