In a home triangular Saturday, the Albert Lea boys’ tennis team lost to Northfield but won against Rochester John Marshall.

When Northfield defeated Albert Lea 6-1 on Saturday, the Tigers were without one of their No. 1 doubles players, Nikk Christianson, as the senior was at home sick. Despite his absence, the Tigers’ No. 1 doubles pairing picked up the team’s only winning set against the Raiders.

“We had a fun morning of tennis,” said Albert Lea coach Tom Dyrdal. “Northfield has a very good team. I was pleased that most of the matches with them were very competitive. (Schafer) Overgaard teamed up with Austin Dulitz for the first time this season at No. 1 doubles and they picked up a nice win.”

In Albert Lea’s other contest of the day, the team defeated Rochester John Marshall 4-3.

“Our match with JM was very exciting. I was anticipating a close match that could go either way,” Dyrdal said. “All three of our doubles teams played very well against JM, sweeping their matches in straight sets.”

The Tigers’ match against the Rockets was kept close, coming down to one set.

“The match eventually came down to a third set tiebreaker in the final match,” Dyrdal said. “Schafer Overgaard had split sets with his JM opponent, which forced the tiebreaker. Schafer fell behind 1-3 in the tiebreaker but battled back to win it 10-6, which gave us the 4-3 win.”

Next, Albert Lea (5-3 overall, 4-3 Big Nine Conference) hosts Mankato West at 4:30 p.m. today.