SMASHING SUCCESS — Fairmont fourth singles player Ian Fortune hammers a forehand winner during Big South Conference tennis action Thursday at the Cardinal Courts in Fairmont. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — Fairmont dominated in third sets.

The Fairmont Cardinals beat the Blue Earth Area Bucs 5-2 during Big South Conference tennis action by sweeping the singles bracket and using third-set wins in all four matches.

Thomas Klanderud won Fairmont’s first team point in singles and tied the meet at 2.

Klanderud bounced back from a 6-3 first-set loss to BEA’s Nick Frundt and garnered consecutive 6-1 wins to earn the second singles win.

Jack Hagen then gave the Cardinals the team lead. Hagen started strong with a 6-2 first-set victory, but the Bucs’ James Greer reversed his fortune for a 6-2 second-set win at third singles.

Hagen then fought to a 6-4 win in the third set to put the Cardinals ahead 3-2.

BEA’s Jamie Johnson started the fourth singles match with a 6-1 win, but the Cardinals’ Ian Fortune bounced back to take a 6-3 second-set win.

The pair then battled to ties at 1, 3, 4 and 5 during the third set, but Fortune was able to garner consecutive wins to take a 7-5 win and clinch the meet for the Cardinals.

“We expected it to be a battle,” Fairmont head coach Eric Johnson said. “They (BEA) are much improved from a couple of years ago. We had to regroup because we lost some good players and we’re really starting to do that. Just really gutsy, gutsy play by everybody today. There were some times where we could have let things go, but we just kept going. We call it digging in, and we dug in and grinded.”

Ameya Komaragiri earned the Cardinals their final team point at first singles.

Komaragiri started the match sweeping his way to a 6-0 first-set win over BEA’s Vern Johnson.

“The first set, he (Johnson) said he just couldn’t get his shots in,” BEA head coach Konny Wolff said. “I think he was trying too hard, hitting the ball a little too hard. When he just tried to keep it in play, he ended up winning the second set.”

Johnson relaxed and battled back to tie Komaragiri at 4, 5 and 6, then forced a tiebreaker, which he took 9-7 in the second set.

Komaragiri followed the extended middle set with a 6-4 third-set win.

Seth Matthews and John Lappe paired at third doubles to earn BEA its first team point with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Dominick Lund-May and Oliver Thedens.

The Bucs’ Jerry Passe and Calvin Farrow then paired for a win at second doubles over Sebastian Castro and Carter Quist, 6-0, 6-1.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Wolff said. “We were missing Joe Frundt, who is our best doubles player, so we had to do some adjustments on the way over here. Our doubles teams kind of got mixed up and a lot of them hadn’t played together. Singles, we played OK, our guys have played better. We competed well, it was a good match.”

Parker Vetter and Noah Vetter earned the Cardinals their first team point of the day at first doubles, taking back-to-back 6-3 set wins over Seth Stevermer an Devin Haase.

Fairmont (8-5) plays host to Pipestone Area in a rescheduled matchup from April 13, at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Cardinal Courts in Fairmont.

Blue Earth Area (4-3) plays host to Worthington at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hal Schroeder Courts in Blue Earth.