It was not the kind of news the Rapid City Stevens tennis team needed.

The Raiders had just finished a sparkling road trip with a 4-0 record. The third victory was the critical one, a 5-4 dual win over No. 1-ranked  Sioux Falls O’Gorman that lasted five hours.

But Tuesday brought with it some news that could dictate the winner of the state tournament in October.

No, the Raiders didn’t suffer their first loss of the season. They swept Rapid City Central 9-0 Tuesday at Parkview Tennis Courts.

The cloud hanging over the team was that Flight 3 singles player Lindsey Tibbles broke her collarbone Monday night in a trampoline accident and will likely miss about three to four weeks.

“It’s a huge loss for us,” Raider head coach Jason Olson said. “She’s one of the best players in the state, a great doubles player. But you just have to deal with it and hopefully it makes you stronger as a team.”

The target return time looks to be roughly around a month, and the Raiders are holding out hope that she can be ready for the state tournament beginning on October 6. However, the team will have to prepare for the possibility that they could be without Tibbles for the rest of the season.

“These girls are really close and it was hard on them,” Olson said. “They were all at the hospital last night. She’s a good kid and the main thing is she gets healthy.”

With Tibbles out Alyssa Mastel will fill in her singles slot and in Flight 2 doubles with Lexie Hammerquist.

Mastel found out about the injury and her ascension to Flight 3 today.

“I saw her today as she was coming out of the library and she had a sling on her arm,” the senior Mastel said. “I’m excited and I’m overwhelmed. I wasn’t really expecting it, but I’ll try my best.”

Hammerquist and Mastel looked fine Tuesday as they downed Colette Christensen and Tianna Duda of the Cobblers 6-1, 6-0.

“I really enjoyed playing with Melissa (Bucknall) and I’ll miss her,” Mastel said. “I don’t want to let Lexie down or anything, so I’ll have to step up my game. She’ll teach me a lot because she’s such a great player, and she’ll never get disappointed in me because she’s so encouraging. She’s a great leader on the team, so it’ll be cool playing with her.”

After sweeping through the doubles, the singles went even quicker. Stevens won all six matches, with Sydney Moyle (Flight 1), Taylor Messinger (Flight 2) and Hammerquist (Flight 4) all winning 6-0, 6-0 over their counterparts from Central.