Prep athletes of the week: Minnetonka tennis' Bella Lambert is sister champ two

There's something about the girls' tennis state tournament that agrees with girls in the Lambert family.

Bella, a junior, routed longtime nemesis Sophia Reddy of Edina 6-0, 7-5 to win the Class 2A singles championship last Friday. It's the first state title for Bella (whose full name is Isabella) and third for the Lamberts. Older sister Aria won back-to-back Class 2A championships in 2008 and 2009 before going on to a solid career at Minnesota. Bella will follow, having committed to Minnesota.

Aria slipped a bit of advice to Bella before the final against Reddy, to whom she had lost frequently in USTA junior tennis tournaments.

"She told me some basic things like never give up on a point and don't think about the bigger picture. Take it one point at a time," Bella said.

While Lambert has had scant overall success against Reddy in her career, she's had her number in state tournament play. Friday marked the second consecutive year she's ousted Reddy in the state tournament, having defeated her in the semifinals in 2015.

"I kind of prefer playing at the state tournament," Lambert said. "I know the USTA is what really counts, but the state tournament has always been a big thing. High school tennis is very important to me."

The sophomore ran away from the field to win the Class 2A, Section 5 meet at Anoka High School. She covered the 5K course in a time of 18:45.1, the only runner under 19 minutes. The Knights won the meet with 53 team points.

The senior narrowly defeated Wayzata's Khalid Hussein to win the Class 2A, Section 6 individual championship at Gale Woods Farm. Eliason, the current Lake Conference champion, had a time of 15:33.4, besting Hussein by just 0.2 seconds.

The senior running back had by far the best game of his career in a 70-42 victory over Buffalo. He rushed 27 times for 281 yards and scored five touchdowns, helping the Bengals roll up 679 yards of total offense.

He rushed for a career-high 324 yards and scoring four touchdowns in Elk River's 62-33 victory over Monticello in the Class 5A, Section 5 semifinals. The senior running back bumped his season total to 1,435 yards on just 107 carries, a 13.4 yard per carry average.

The senior went wire-to-wire as the No. 1-ranked singles player in Class 1A, defeating teammate Arlina Shen 6-2, 6-4 in the finals. It was her second individual state title and fourth in two years, having also led the Bears to two team championships.

The junior forward made the Class 1A quarterfinals her personal showcase, scoring four goals – half as many as she had scored all season – to pace the Red Knights to a 6-0 victory over St. Cloud Apollo.