For the second straight season, the Dike-New Hartford doubles pair of Addy Joslin/Lauren Muller has qualified for the Class 1A Girls Tennis Individual State Tournament. The pair placed second at Wednesday’s state qualifying meet at Columbus Catholic.
A season removed from a fourth place finish, they were the top seed. They earned wins by sweep in the first round and quarterfinals, then a 6-0, 6-1 win in the semifinals to clinch their spot at state. In the finals, they fell to a pair from Central DeWitt. Joslin and Muller say they’ve grown together as a pair throughout the last two seasons.
“I feel our connection has gotten better,” Joslin says. “We’ve grown and all around just gotten better, gotten to know each other more. We work well with each other.”
“Yes, one thousand percent agree,” Muller says. “It’s been really fun.”
Head Coach Reegan Zinkula says it’s a well-deserved honor.
“Obviously placing fourth at State last year, they had a huge target on their back the entire season, but these girls didn’t let that bother them,” Zinkula says. “They stepped up to the challenge. We had to get moved indoors due to the rain, and we faced a good Independence team. We played them in the regular season, but Independence has improved so much since when we saw them last. So they gave the girls a challenge, but our girls stepped up to it. They just played their game, continued to keep the girls as far back on the court as they could, and obviously trying to avoid that front row was our target too. So securing that state qualifier was awesome against Independence, and then we just finished against Central DeWitt who’s a very, very good doubles team as well.”
Teammates Tareya Johnson/Autumn Meester were quarterfinalists. In singles, Haley Badker reached the semifinals, but fell in that match and the third place match to place fourth. Action moved from Byrnes Park to Black Hawk Tennis Club’s indoor courts due to weather before the semifinals began.
Aplington-Parkersburg was also at the site, but all four entries were defeated in the first round.
Grundy Center, Hampton-Dumont-CAL and Iowa Falls-Alden were at the state qualifying meet at Grinnell, which was suspended due to weather and will resume Thursday at 9:00 a.m.
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