Several local student athletes earned individual tennis state qualification at Monday’s IGHSAU Regional Singles & Doubles tournaments.
At the regional meet in Decorah, Aplington-Parkersburg had a singles player and a doubles pair qualify. In singles, Bella Buseman placed second, earning a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset of top-seeded Jaidyn Duvel of Decorah in the semifinals.
After they each qualified in singles last season, Peyton Klooster and Adria Neymeyer paired up to qualify in doubles. They placed second in the regional bracket.
In Waterloo, Dike-New Hartford’s doubles pair of Izzy Norton and Aida Tott didn’t drop a set on their way to the regional championship, qualifying as a pair for the second straight season. In the finals, they defeated teammates Addy Joslin/Lauren Muller, who qualified by placing second. Norton and Tott on returning to the state tournament.
“It’s still really exciting,” Norton says. “It’s obviously not as exciting as last year because this is our goal in the end, to be right back here. So still exciting, but we still got a bigger goal ahead of us.”
“It’s just been great,” Tott says. “Energy’s been high all day. Love playing together when the energy’s high. And it’s been going really well.”
Tott and Norton say they’ve made key improvements throughout the season.
“Keeping the communication up has been key in our game,” Tott says. “We’ve been talking the whole time, cheering each other on. There’s no getting down when we play like that.”
“We just say little things to each other like, keep going, you got this, or you’re good,” Norton says. “Then also just playing our game and not trying to play their game and hitting the shots that we know we can hit.”
In Denison, South Hardin’s Abby Teske qualified in singles after qualifying in doubles last season. The top seed, Teske secured her spot by winning a tiebreaker set in the semifinals before falling in the finals.
The state tournament will be May 30 and 31 in Waterloo.
Aida Tott/Izzy Norton:
