Playing with a short-handed girls varsity squad and with some early-season rust, Sandpoint tennis took the two-hour trek down to Lewiston and fell 11-1 on Friday afternoon.

“On the bright side, it was great to finally play on real courts,” Sandpoint tennis head coach Kent Anderson said in an email. “Today was our first time on full courts with dry tennis balls since the season officially started one month ago.”

Sandpoint’s bright side was the doubles play of Allura Livingston and Hadley Goodvin, who cruised to a two-set win.

“It was actually shocking the way they could carve up a quality Lewiston team without any prior full court practice,” Anderson wrote. “Allura’s pin-point volleys combined perfectly with Hadley’s smooth ground-strokes. The outcome was never in question.”

Although Livingston and Goodvin’s results weren’t “in question” like Anderson said, the head coach also believes several matches could have gone either way.

Over in boys doubles, Christian Story and Josh Jessen jumped out to a 6-4 win in the first set, but couldn’t seal the deal in the final two sets. The

“Boys doubles showed explosive power and good shot selection,” Anderson said. “After a strong first set win, Lewiston was able to wear them down and pull out a hard-fought, three-setter.”

Sandpoint’s mixed doubles team faced the same fate. Tyler Korn and Denali Terry dropped their first set, responded with a 6-2 second set win, but dropped the tiebreaker, 6-4.

“Great serving almost got them the W,” Anderson said. “These two will be fun to watch as we get some quality practice time.”

All in all, Anderson was pleased with the team’s results — especially considering the team’s practice conditions as of late.

“I was actually encouraged after watching all the matches,” Anderson said. “We were very competitive. We have to keep our eye on the prize: the district Championships in five weeks.”

“We’ll be ready,” Anderson said, before adding “If the snow ever melts at Travers.”

Sandpoint will travel to IEL rival Moscow next Tuesday, March 26. Matches start at 11 a.m.

Lewiston 11, Sandpoint 1

Sandpoint athletes in bold

GIRLS SINGLES: No. 1. Rylei Carper d. Tessa Beeman, 6-1, 6-0. No. 2. Sydney Finch d. Colleene McBride, 6-4, 6-4. No. 3. Shelby Hobbs v. Maureen Warde, DNF.

GIRLS DOUBLES: Allura Livingston/Hadley Goodvin d. Paige Boudreaux/Sierra Paulson, 6-3, 6-1. Tia Fiag/Sara, d. Taryn McBride/Olivia Ramirez, 6-3, 6-2.

BOYS SINGLES: No. 1 Austin Gomez d. Declan Plummer, 6-0, 6-0. No. 2. Wyatt Carper d. Charlie Johnson, 6-3, 6-2. No. 3. Tristan Bachman d. Charles England, 6-3, 6-2.

BOYS DOUBLES: Austin Carper/Eli Thomas d. Christian Story/Josh Jessen, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Ethan Noakes/Kieran Garcia d. Tabor Dussault/Carter Johnson, 6-3, 6-4.

MIXED DOUBLES: Audrey Parkey/Henry Parkey d. Anton Morau/ Emma Unger, 6-2, 6-1. Ryann Finch/Noah Williams d. Tyler Korn/Denali Terry, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.