Taking the Next Step
The Red Oak sister tennis duo of Rachel and Emily Pierson breezed into the finals of the Class 1A Iowa State Tennis Tournament at Johnston High School last week before falling in the state championship match to Ashytn Dixon and Tiana Bark of Camanche.
The Pierson’s didn’t lose a set in early round wins over Lindsey Nissen and Jayln Deering of Comanche (6-2, 6-4), Maggi Schutte and Hannah Worrall of Boone (6-3, 6-3) and Lindsay Cayton and Hannah Mart of Marion (6-1, 6-2) advancing to the title match.
There waiting in the finals was Dixon and Bark, last year’s runner up.
After getting down 4-0 early in the match, Rachel and Emily, who placed third in doubles last year as freshmen, rebounded, forced a tie breaker and took game one 7-5 and led 2-1 in game two before Dixon and Bark did a rebound of their own.
The Camanche duo would score the the next five points unanswered to record a set two win, 6-2. Nearly the same would happen in set three when again the Pierson’s got up 2-1 before Dixon and Bark scored five straight to win the state title.
“We were so up and down, we started out down 0-4, came back and won and started out up in the next two and lost them – it was peaks and valleys. I just thought we never got settled in the championships match,” said Red Oak coach Dan Martinez.
“We learned a lot – that’s the first time those two have been challenged in any form this year,” he said.
“It’s good for me to see them play some good tennis against a good team. I saw some things we haven’t seen all year we need to work on. You get into some bad habits playing lesser teams.
“You can use your power game against some lesser teams. Against this team they couldn’t do that and needed some more fundamentals and angles. But I’m proud of them, its tough to get to the state final and lose. We’ll keep working. Hopefully this will motivate them.”
In singles play, Celia Morton of Wahlert Dubuque defeated Red Oak’s Kaely Piller 6-0, 6-2 in the first round.
Piller bounced back to beat Cathy Kain of Saydel 6-0, 5-7 and 1-0 in a tie-breaker and Ana Nora of Waterloo Columbus 6-2, 7-5 to advance to the fifth place consolation match. In the fifth place match Piller was again matched against Morton who won a 6-1, 6-1 decision.