MINNEAPOLIS — Admittedly, New London-Spicer girls tennis head coach Nancy Rost saw plenty of improvement from Pine City in the Class A quarterfinals.

Pine City faced the Wildcats in early September, taking home a 4-1 victory before inclement weather pushed the match to end prematurely.

Fast forward to late October, the Dragons got the best of NLS for the second time this season in their 6-1 win in the Class A quarterfinals at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center on Tuesday.

Pine City advances to play No. 2 Blake at 10 a.m. Wednesday back at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center.

The Wildcats competed in the consolation semifinals against Providence Academy at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Blake beat Providence Academy 4-3 in another Class A quarterfinal. Also Tuesday, No. 1 Rochester Lourdes beat Luverne 7-0 and No. 4 St. James beat No. 5 Crookston 4-3.

“(Pine City) has a really good net game,” Rost said. “That was the difference.

“(The Dragons) were able to take advantage of our short balls, move in and finish the point.”

NLS’ point came from senior Emily Ruter at the No. 3 singles spot. She defeated Lena Roubinek in two sets.

Ruter trailed Roubinek 5-2 in the first set before coming away with a 7-5 victory and went on to win set two at 6-4. She also beat Roubinek earlier in the year 6-4, 6-2.

“(Lena) is really good,” Ruter said. “I was like, ‘I just gotta push through and try to make all my shots. Point-by-point they just kept coming together.”

Rost added,” I’m really happy that Emily was able to win a match at state. That’s a big deal.”

Earning singles points for Pine City was Brooke Boland, Allison Unverzagt and Lily Struss.

Pine City was able to oust NLS’ doubles teams, earning wins all across the board.

Malia Mikyska/Brenna Youngbauer beat Madisyn Claseman/Delaney Hanson in three sets, winning 6-2, 3-6, 10-6. Lexa Valvoda/Alana Linnell defeated Brianna Wileman/Jadyn Proehl 6-2, 6-0. Vivian Lahti/Kate Unverzagt earned a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Heidi Taunton/Averie Turner.

“We want to do well, so we’re really looking forward to the consolation match,” Rost said. “They’re disappointed but they’re ready to play again and do the best they can.”

“We put in so much hard work and it paid off,” Ruter added on NLS making it to state. “We had a really tough first match, but we all played our best and that’s all that really matters.”