The IGHSAU 1A Singles & Doubles Tennis State Tournament concluded Saturday at Byrnes Park, and three local doubles pairs earned medals.
Dike-New Hartford’s Izzy Norton/Aida Tott improved on last year’s seventh place finish by battling to place second. In the semifinal, they defeated Decorah 2-1, battling back from dropping the second set 6-0 and a 3-1 deficit in the third set. In the finals, they fell 2-0 to Cedar Rapids Xavier to finish their careers as the runner-up.
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“We feel really good,” Tott says. “It’s great playing together. I love playing with Izzy, and it was a good day. Improvement from last year.”
“I’m proud of us,” Norton says. “Second place, not what you always want. But we played good. We played hard. The Decorah match was tough. Second’s amazing.”
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Head Coach Reegan Zinkula on the accomplishment, which was the highest placing in program history.
“That is an amazing and huge accomplishment for both of those girls,” Zinkula says. “Coming in here, we were seeded third and they had really high hopes for this. And obviously that last match didn’t go exactly how they wanted to. But as I told the girls, I’m like, you guys got second in the state in 1A and there’s only two classes in tennis. So second in the state is an amazing accomplishment. They should be really proud of themselves. The last four years they’ve been working towards this since they got seventh last year. That’s been their goal ever since that day. So I’m really proud of their hard work both in season and out of season, they earned this.”
Teammates Addy Joslin/Lauren Muller placed fourth, falling 2-0 in the semifinals to the eventual champions from Xavier, and falling 2-0 to Decorah in the third place match.
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“We feel really good,” Joslin says. “We didn’t even know we were going to come this far, and we just kept winning and doing our best, and it got us far. It was great. I’m so excited. So fun.”
Aplington-Parkersburg’s Peyton Klooster/Adria Neymeyer placed sixth. They began the day with a 2-0 sweep of Kuemper Catholic in the consolation semifinal, and fell 2-1 to Cedar Rapids Xavier in the fifth place match. Neymeyer and Klooster say it was fulfilling to end their careers at the state tournament.
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“Super excited we got to end it like this,” Neymeyer says. “Throughout my whole high school careerm we played together. It’s super sweet that we get to do it together and just such a good memory.”
“It’s definitely bittersweet, but I’m so glad I got to finish out my senior year playing with Adria as she’s one of my best friends.” Klooster says.
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“We had a tough draw from the get-go, faced the number one seed in our second match,” AP coach Haley Schneiderman says. “They fought hard through it all, went to a third set with them, ended up losing. And then we lost to another tough Xavier team as well. But they played super well the whole tournament. They were being aggressive. And it’s just awesome that they’re both best friends in tennis and outside of tennis too. And so it’s just awesome that they got to do it together.”
