RAPID CITY - Rapid City hosts a major weekend of girls tennis starting today. The Rapid City Invitational will include 10 teams that will provide two days of action at three locations.

"It will be an exciting weekend of tennis in Rapid City, with 10 teams competing," said Mary Helen Flanery, the St. Thomas More-Rapid City Christian coach.

Play begins today at 9 a.m. at Sioux Park with the top two programs from last season: Rapid City Stevens, who will play Sheridan, Wyo., and Sioux Falls O'Gorman, who will play Sturgis. Rapid City Central will meet Gillette, Wyo., at Memorial Park. Other matches will be played at North Middle School.

The tournament will be the first time this season that West River tennis teams see defending state champion Sioux Falls O'Gorman, which returns all of its top players from last season.

"It's a good indication of where we're at," said tournament organizer and Stevens coach Jason Olson, whose team fell 9-0 to the Knights at the same tournament last season. "There will be some good tennis."

Other teams competing are Pierre, Brandon Valley, Spearfish and St. Thomas More-Rapid City Christian, which won its opener 8-1 on Thursday.

The Cavaliers took something else from it.

"I saw my girls figure out how to win and that's a wonderful thing," Flanery said.

The singles victories in the top two flights were by the same 10-1 score. In Flight 1, the Cavaliers' Cheyenne Raforth defeated Mallory Strang, and Aisling Gould followed up with a victory over Samantha Tritsch.

Sturgis' Stacy Davison earned the Scoopers only win, over Marin Plumb, 10-4; Alexis Haakadahl, Denali Raforth and Catherine Gibbens were the other Cavalier singles winners.

In doubles, the team of Gould and Cheyenne Raforth overtook Sturgis' Strang and Tritsch, 10-7; Haakadahl and Gibbons bettered Davidson and Takahashi, 10-5, and Denali Raforth and Plumb defeated Peterson and Bedford, 10-1.