Albert Lea girls’ tennis coach Sean Gillam cringed a bit when he heard his co-captain, Ashley Helgerson, on the radio Saturday.

&uot;She guaranteed a win,&uot; said Gillam. &uot;Which is something I’m not really big on.&uot;

But she and her teammates backed it up.

The Tigers defeated Rochester John Marshall 4-3 at Southwest Junior High School Tuesday, their first win over the Rockets in recent memory.

&uot;It’s probably been five, six years since we’ve been able to beat a team like this,&uot; said Gillam. &uot;It’s a pretty big win for us. It puts us into that middle to second level of the Big Nine.&uot;

Helgerson and Nicole Rafdal set the tone at No. 1 doubles, where they dominated 6-1, 6-1. Kristin Wulff and Amanda Rose won 6-0, 6-3 at No. 2 while Anne Trebil and Marisa Christopherson prevailed 6-3, 7-5 at No. 3.

Karen Leonard moved up to No. 1 singles and rallied to win 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.

The other singles scores: No. 2, Becky Birkhofer lost 6-4, 6-4; No. 3, Elizabeth Thompson lost 6-1, 6-0; and No. 4, Dezeray Jacobs lost 3-6, 7-5 and 10-8 in a &uot;super tiebreaker.&uot;

The Tigers, 2-1 in the Big Nine and 3-3 overall, play at Winona Thursday.