United South Central’s doubles team of Linsey Thisius and Kia Legred earned a first-round win at the Class A state tournament for the second straight year in a row.

“It was great,” said Thisius. “We had a lot of fun.”

The duo won in the first round but lost in the second Thursday.

They had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Trinity’s Katie Mulvey and Elena Turbenson at the Reed-Sweat Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis.

“I’m very proud of their play,” said USC coach Gary Hagen. “I take my hat off to them for their hard work and determination.”

Thisius and Legred trailed 0-2 in the first set but won four straight points to take the lead.

“We started a little slow,” Hagen said. “It took us a little time to get our bearings, but then we went all the way up to 6-3.”

In the second set, USC took a 4-0 lead and cruised.

During the regular season, both players anchored the singles lineup. However, Thisius and Legred decided to team up for the postseason.

“Linsey gave Kia the go-ahead to go to singles, but she chose to make a run at the tournament in doubles,” Hagen said.

After the win over Trinity, the two Rebels faced a familiar opponent: Grace Zumwinkle and Kendall Kozikowski from The Breck School.

Last season, the squads met in the state quarterfinals of the 16-team bracket.

“What are the odds of us being in the same bracket again?” Hagen asked.

The team from The Breck School went on to defeat USC last year and finish as the state runner-up against another team from Breck. This year, Zumwinkle and Kozikowski will have another chance to get to the championship with a match against Kalley Spreiter and Kennedy Sommerfeld of Litchfield at 8 a.m. today in the semifinals. The championship is at 11:30 a.m. today.

Zumwinkle and Kozikowski won the rematch with Thisius and Legred 6-4, 6-3. In both sets, Breck jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

“Our kids were right there playing with them,” Hagen said. “I think (The Breck School’s) aggressive play at the net hurt us a little bit, but I’m proud of the girls. They really scrambled to get us so many points back.”

Thisius is a senior, and Legred is a junior. Thisius is undecided about which college to attend, but she said she’d be excited to play tennis at the collegiate level. She was 22-2 as a singles player.

Legred will return to lead the Rebels next year.