Sports Roundup: Eastview, Apple Valley Girls Tennis Teams Begin Playoffs

As several local high school teams jockey for playoff positioning, the and girls tennis teams begin their post-season on Tuesday with first-round play in the Section 3AA tournament.

Apple Valley and Eastview Girls Tennis

After concluding their regular seasons last week, the Eastview and Apple Valley girls tennis teams were handed the fifth and sixth seeds, respectively, for the sectional bracket, with both teams to begin 3AA play on their home courts on Tuesday.

Eastview takes on No. 12 , while Apple Valley hosts No. 11 Bloomington Jefferson; both matches are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Barring upsets, it will likely be the final home match for both squads. If seeding follows for the second round, the Lightning would play at No. 4 Visitation on Thursday while the Eagles would travel to No. 3 on Thursday.

The sectional semifinals and finals are slated to be played on Oct. 11 and 13, respectively, at Lifetime Fitness in Lakeville.

Eastview Girls Cross Country

The Eastview girls cross-country team took third at the Jaguar All-Terrain Challenge at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington on Sept. 29.

Courtney Conroy led the Lightning with a 17th-place time of 16 minutes, 1 second over the four-kilometer course. Jena Moody (16:15) was 20th, Hana Metoxen (16:18) 21st, Lauren Herland (16:21) 24th and Brooke Haesmeyer (16:49) 29th.

Eastview Boys Soccer

The No. 1-ranked Eastview boys soccer team improved to 13-0-1 overall with a pair of non-conference wins: 3-1 versus St. Michael-Albertville on Sept. 29 and 5-0 against Hastings on Oct. 1.

The Lightning lead the South Suburban Conference with a 6-0-1 circuit mark and will claim the conference title with a win at Rosemount on Tuesday night; Eastview closes out the regular season versus Prior Lake in the regular-season finale on Thursday.

Mathew Gweh is eighth in the metro with 25 points on 19 goals and six assists, while the goalkeeping tandem of Treston Kederer and Sam Ruelas have combined for 95 saves on 105 shots and six shutouts this season.

Eastview Girls Soccer

A five-game unbeaten streak has boosted the Eastview girls soccer team's record to 10-2-2 overall as the seventh-ranked Lightning play out the regular-season string this week.

Eastview topped Blaine, 2-0, in a nonconference game on Oct. 1 and enter a Tuesday night game versus Rosemount just one game off 's lead in the South Suburban with a 4-1-2 conference mark. The Lightning close out the pre-playoff schedule at home versus Prior Lake on Thursday.

Paris Sanders and Leah Nesheim top the Lightning scoring chart with nine and eight goals through 14 games, respectively. Goalkeeper Anhthu Huynh has a save percentage of .901 and six shutouts this autumn.

Apple Valley Boys Soccer

The Apple Valley boys soccer team improved to 10-3-1 overall with a 4-1 defeat of Class A's No. 3-ranked St. Paul Academy on Oct. 1.

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Eagles are two games off Eastview's lead pace in the conference standings with a 4-2-1 mark against South Suburban opponents.

Entering the week, Connor Flanagan's 12 points on eight goals and four assists led the team, with Mitchell Dawson's 11 points on five goals and six assists following.

Apple Valley hosts eighth-ranked Eagan on Tuesday night, then concludes the regular season at Burnsville on Thursday.

Apple Valley Volleyball

A four-game match loss to eighth-ranked Eden Prairie on Sept. 29 dropped the Apple Valley volleyball team to 8-9 overall and 3-2 in the South Suburban. Individual statistics were not made available.

Apple Valley Girls Swimming and Diving

The Apple Valley girls swimming and diving team defeated Bloomington Jefferson, 97-83, on Sept. 28.

Stephanie Bierman won both the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, with Kate Wright winning the 100-yard butterfly and Delaney McDonald taking the top spot in both the 500- and 50-yard freestyle events.

Statistics and scores for the Apple Valley girls/boys cross-country and Eastview boys cross-country team competitions were not reported.