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Show Miners get breaks (the wrong kind) in state tennis by Handy Hanskat The bad luck continues lor Park City High School number two singles tennis player Leslie Rukavina. Two weeks ago she was forced to play with fogged contact lenses in the region tournament. Then last Saturday, Rukavina cracked a bone in her leg in the state tournament in Provo and went down in defeat. Miner girls' tennis coach Maggie Carley said she thought Rukavina" would've won the state title if she had not suffered the injury. Other than Rukavina, the other Miners had a tough time of it in Provo. Number one singles player Stefanie Elkins got the farthest of the bunch, making it to the final before losing. No one else made it past the second round. As a result, the Miners finished fourth in the tournament. For the second year in a row it was Dixie, a southern Utah school, followed by St. Joseph. In only her second year on the team, Elkins finished second in the state in 1A tennis. She lost her final round match to Tina Crawford of Dixie, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6. Carley said nerves were a problem for Elkins in the first set of that match. She said Crawford played an intimidating brand of tennis, taking shots on the short hop, constantly rushing the net. Elkin's inexperience hurt her as she was flustered by such tactics. But between sets, Carley told Elkins to keep the ball deep on Crawford. Faced with this tactic, Crawford was unable to pressure the play and Elkins won the second set 6-4. 6-4. The story of the third set, Carley said, was that Elkins got tired. "She's not used to playing three sets in a match," Carley said. She battled, but went down 4-6. "With more experience Stetanie can beat that girl," Carley said about next year's state tourney. "I can see no problem there." Senior Leslie Rukavina must have walked under a ladder recently, or broken a mirror, or stepped on a crack, or something. Her luck has been all bad. She finished second in the region tournament held at Park City two weeks ago in part because her pair of contact lenses fogged up and wouldn't clear. To continue her misfortune, she pulled a muscle in her leg in the seeding tournament early last week. At Provo that muscle was still weak, and when she put pressure on it she ended up cracking the bone. That catastrophe struck in her first round match against Penny Jorgensen of Manti. Rukavina had won the first set 7-5, then cracked the bone in the second. Not knowing it was so severe. Rukavina continued to play in pain and lost the set 3-6. Between sets, the leg was wrapped, and miraculously Rukavina went out and won the deciding set 6-3 to move on to round two. Rukavina had already beaten every other opponent she would have had to face in the pairings, so had a good shot to win the state title. But the leg said no, and she went down 2-6, 2-6 in severe pain to Katheryn Fanson of Dixie. "She hung in there," Carley said. ' Often she was in tears alter a point, but continued to fight. We didn't know it was broken until afterwards. Kris Ruzicka, in the number three singles slot, was a victim of her own mind, Carley said. Last year in the state tournament Ruzicka played on the same court she was on Saturday. It was a court where birds frequently hover overhead, and leave droppings. In her match last year Ruzicka was bombed by one of the birds, and went on to lose the match. This year, while facing Amy Allen of Dixie in the second round, she couldn't concentrate on the task at hand, as her eyes strayed ever skyward. Without the necessary concentration Ruzicka lost the first set 0-6. In the second she finally forgot about the birds, but it was too late, and she lost that set 5-7. Allen went on to win state. The members of Miner number one doubles team continued to show that they haven't gelled as a team. Stephanie Holcomb and Katie Smith, a new pairing tnis season, didn't make it past the first round qualifying match against Stacy Shumway and Sue Limon of San Juan. The score was 1-6, 6-7. Park City's number two doubles team of Katherine Carry and Becky Smith faced a different level of competition than they expected. Carley said the Dixie combo of Tammy Crawford and Lauri Wade were the number one doubles champions in last year's tournament. But this year Crawford and Wade were switched from number one to number two. So after Carry and Smith got through their qualifying match, they ran into last year's state champions. The game score was 2-6, 4-6. Carley said she thinks the tandem of Carry and Smith could win the state title next year, in number one or number two doubles. Both are only sophomores this season. Next year's team will be minus two of the three singles players, Carley said. Rukavina and Ruzicka both graduate this year. "We need to pick up a couple of singles players." She thinks Katie Smith wants to move into the singles ranks, and plans on Stacy Cofer, an alternate this year, filling the other spot. Both will be juniors next season. The doubles picture could change as well. Stephanie Holcomb is trying to convince her partner from last season, CoriAnn Martinez, to return to the team next year. Also, Julie Burnett, a sophomore alternate this season, is looking for a doubles partner. Carley said if she doesn't get a good showing of young kids out next season no freshmen turned out for this year's squad the team could be in trouble after the current group of sophomores graduates. She encouraged prospective players to come out next year, saying that the practice and experience gained by being an alternate makes those players better prepared to step into starting spots the next year. |