Red Oak girls tennis ready for weekend
It will be a busy weekend for the Red Oak girls tennis team as individual qualifiers Kate Walker (singles) and Zoey Baker and Grace Blomstedt (doubles) will be competing, and the team will take part in the semifinals for team state.
Red Oak was able to advance to the final four when they defeated Ballard in first round of team state May 20 in Norwalk, 5-0.
The Tigers were able to win all six of their singles matches, even though they only needed five for the win.
Walker defeated Alana Bendler 6-2 and 6-2, while Erica Sherman defeated Jenna Leland 6-1 and 7-6 (4). Blomstedt won against Brenna Ripp 6-0 and 6-1, while Paige Vannausdle defeated Alex Petersen 6-0 and 6-2.
Baker and Micayla Taylor both won their matches in a third set super tiebreaker.
Red Oak will face Dubuque Wahlert in the semifinals. Waterloo Columbus and Davenport Assumption will face off in the other semifinal. The championship and third place matches will take place later on Saturday.
Last season, Red Oak finished fourth after losing to Waterloo Columbus in the semifinals and Dubuque Wahlert in the third place match. Red Oak enters the state team tournament looking to snap their streak of fourth place finishes. The last time Red Oak finished better than fourth was in 2008 when they placed second.The semifinals will take place Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Ankeny Tennis Complex.
Individual Tournament
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union did release the pairings for the 1A individual tournament in singles and doubles last week.
Walker will face Makenzie Richmond of Centerville in the first round.
Should Walker win, she will face the winner of Haley Resnick of Davenport Assumption and Emily Ahlers of LeMars.
Walker was eliminated in the second round of consolations last season.
In doubles, Baker and Blomstedt will face Geanne and Claire Bouchard of Cedar Rapids Xavier.
This will be the first state individual appearances for both Blomstedt and Baker.
The individual tournament begins Thursday and continues Friday in Ankeny.