Three times this spring tennis season, Megan Geiger and Shanna Cooper played challenge matches to decide who would play singles and who would play doubles for Saline High School.

And three times, Cooper -- the younger of the two -- won. So Cooper played singles and Geiger played doubles for most of the season and everyone seemed happy.

On Thursday afternoon, in the quarterfinals of the Ann Arbor city girls' juniors tennis tournament, they met again and for the first time, the result was different. Geiger won.

Using heavy groundstrokes and a dominant serve, Geiger beat Cooper 6-1, 7-5 in a match interrupted by a rain delay, moved to a different venue and saw emotional swings from both players.

Geiger, the tournament's No. 2 seed, dominated the first set as Cooper continued to recover from pulled wisdom teeth a week ago that kept her from playing much tennis at all.

"I'm just not on my game right now at all," Cooper said. "At all."

Cooper, though, rebounded in the second set and broke Geiger at 5-4 in the second set to put herself in position to potentially force a third set tiebreak.

Then, the rains came and the real interesting stuff began. It rained for less than five minutes at Pioneer High School, but it was enough to have one of the meet directors send Geiger and Cooper from Pioneer to the Varsity Tennis Center.

Geiger left. A moment later, the tournament changed course and Cooper was told to stay. So the break lasted almost an hour and it allowed Geiger to calm down.

"It was a little rough, actually," Geiger said. "Breaking between playing actually slows you down.

"...I was thinking 'OK, I let up a little bit in the second set and right now I have to step it up a little bit and pull through this match.' I didn't want to have to go through the anxiety of a tiebreak or anything."

When they started playing again, this time on Court 9 of the VTC, it took Geiger less than five minutes to win the six points she needed to close out the match and secure a semifinal berth.

Part of it goes to a new consistency from Geiger. That was the first thing the 15-year-old Cooper noticed about her friend's revamped and improved game.

It also goes with a new strategy for Geiger.

"I try to move my opponent more around on the court now," the 17-year-old Geiger said. "I try to stay calm and try to become more mentally tough. Going in knowing I've lost to her three times this season isn't the most uplifting thing."

Now, though, that won't be an issue anymore.

For results from the city tournament and times for Friday's matches, go to the brackets on the tournament Web site.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558.