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ST. PETER - Blue Earth Area's Emily Slama arrived at Gustavus Adolphus College's indoor tennis facility in St. Peter before the 9 a.m. starting time Monday.

After the Section 2A individual seeding meeting, the Bucs' junior standout learned she had earned the No. 2 seed in the singles bracket.

And then Slama waited through the singles and doubles brackets' play-in rounds and the majority of the first full singles bracket until finally stepping onto the Gibbs Court just minutes before 2 p.m.

The hard-hitting Slama, however, made the most of her long wait by analyzing her initial opponent's skills during play-in tennis action.

The strategy paid instant dividends as Slama posted back-to-back 6-1 set victories over Le Center/ Cleveland's Megan Kelly before duplicating that score in eliminating No. 7-seeded Kayla Trocke of Sibley East in the sectional quarterfinals.

The No. 2-seeded Slama advances to face No. 3-seeded Danni Collins of Waseca in today's Section 2A semifinals at 3 p.m. back at the Gustavus Adolphus indoor facility in St. Peter.

"I had a brother (Tim) that played high school tennis and a sister (Amy) that played, too," Emily Slama said in response to a reporter's question regarding her roots in the game.

Now, Slama will look to follow in her siblings' footsteps by qualifying for the Class A individual state tennis meet for the first time in her outstanding prep career.

If Slama can dispatch the hard-hitting Collins, the task, however, does not get any easier as either No. 1-seeded Elena Almici of Sibley East or unseeded Briee Mercier of Waseca await in either the finals or third-place match.

Almici, a high velocity-cranking foreign exchange student from Italy, gained today's singles semifinals by downing Blue Earth Area's Annika Johnson in the first round, 6-0, 6-1, before outslugging St. Peter sophomore standout Sidney Dirks in a good-to-the-last-shot 6-1, 6-4 quarterfinal shootout.

Mercier, on the other hand, displayed the stamina of a champion by surviving Monday's three-round gauntlet.

The Waseca senior standout blanked Maple River's Josie Walters, 6-0, 6-0, in the play-in round before upending No. 4-seeded Maura Flaherty of Belle Plaine in the first full round, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

After getting a bit of a breather, Mercier eliminated another top-seeded netter in No. 5 Erin Seaver of Le Sueur-Henderson in a quarterfinal battle of stellar groundstrokes, 6-4, 6-2.

Collins, Mercier's teammate, produced a 6-1, 6-1 first-round victory over LSH's Kendra Wolf before fending off the hard-working Ali Ramsley of United South Central in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-4.

In the doubles' bracket, three of the top four seeds gained today's 3 p.m. semifinals at Gustavus Adolphus.

No. 1-seeded Mandi Stencel and Sara Anderson of Maple River will face No. 4-seeded Bailey Plonske and Cassie Schultz of LSH, while No. 2-seeded Lexie Ulfers and Hannah Flor of Waseca will clash with No. 6-seeded Stephanie Smith and Tabitha Woitas of Maple River.

Stencel and Anderson netted a 6-0, 6-0 first-round win over Blue Earth Area's Mackenzie Lein and Abby Nimz before knocking out Waseca's Taylor Nelson and Abby Collins in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 6-3.

Plonske and Schultz reached Day 2 of the sectional tournament by opening with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over USC's Robin Staloch and Megan Chicos before eliminating Sibley East's Ashley Thomes and Courtney Nienaber in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-3.

Smith and Woitas defeated St. Peter's Katie Hanson and Rachael Thompson, 6-3, 6-0, before outlasting USC's Cami Christian and Brianna Schroeder in the quarters, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7).

Ulfers and Flor rounded out the talent-laden doubles bracket by coasting to a 6-1, 6-2 first-round victory over LSH's Liz Weiers and Jacqueline Tousley.

The 6-foot Ulfers and Flor then served a 6-2, 6-2 quarterfinal loss to Belle Plaine's Brooke Moylan and Cassie Schneider.

Blue Earth Area's Lein and Nimz defeated Fairmont's Megan Fuhrman and Casey Paris during play-in action, 6-0, 7-6 (7-3), while Hanson and Thompson fended off Fairmont's Hayley Grefe and Kelly Bloomgren during the play-in round, 2-6, 6-1, (10-3).

Moylan and Schneider squeezed by Blue Earth Area's Jessica Skaare and Olivia Skaare in first-round action, 6-4, 6-3.

In singles action, Blue Earth Area's Johnson defeated LCC's Jenny Frederick in play-in action, 6-4, 6-1, while USC's Katie Lorenz downed Fairmont's Haleigh Gerhardt during play-in action, 6-3, 6-1.

Sibley East's Trocke eliminated Fairmont's Sydney Ruen in first-round singles play, 6-1, 6-0.