By Becky Walz,
The Decorah girls’ tennis team fell short in their bid to reach the final four in this year’s state tourney on Monday in Independence. With rackets at the ready, the girls gave the Xavier Saints as much as they wanted but just could not win enough of the closely contested points to come away with a win, falling 5-0.
“The use of no-add scoring may speed up play, but it is definitely deflating if you are on the wrong side of the deuce points. I watched the first set of one of the matches and counted four deuce points that we lost. That equates to four games that will turn a close set completely around. I give Xavier a lot of credit. They had the serve or the well-placed groundstroke that produced the winning point in those close games. I, as a coach, cannot be more pleased with the team’s effort. They left what they had to offer on the court. Xavier is a favorite to win the team title this year in Class 1A tennis and I can see why. But there was no hint of backing down from them by the Lady Vikes,” said Coach Larry Berland.
The coach added, “If we could play them one more time after having seen what they had to offer, we would definitely tighten up those set scores. I must congratulate senior Kendra Bigler for her outstanding play this season. She gave every opponent that she encountered a match that they would not soon forget. Kendra brought a super spirit to every practice and match. Junior Kristi Kjome-Johnson saw her season end with the Xavior win as well. Kristi, like Kendra, made outstanding progress this year and has the potential to really take off next year. There is no taking her foot off the pedal when Kristi takes the court. The ball is going to fly and cause problems for someone on the court.”
“With Decorah never getting to play doubles in their three team victories and again in Monday’s loss, the doubles teams are hungry to get back at it. (The first team to reach 5 wins in head-to-head post season play becomes the match winner and further play is halted.) I know when I was on the tennis advisory board there was a lot of discussion of playing doubles first and then singles so that everyone played. Often a team has an extra player for doubles, and they may never get to play if all matches are determined by five singles’ wins. I am so proud of the girls’ sportsmanship, honesty, coachability, and demeanors. Decorah can be very proud to have them be ambassadors for their school and city,” said Coach Berland.
Decorah’s focus now turns to the state singles and doubles tourney to be held at Byrnes Park in Waterloo, June 2-3.
Singles: No. 1 Annalise Skrade (Decorah) was defeated by Miyoko Coffey (Xavier) 4-6, 1-6; No. 2 Cady Peterson (Decorah) was defeated by Courtney Carstensen (Xavier) 3-6, 0-6; No. 3 Morgan Brauer (Decorah) was defeated by Ally Burger (Xavier) 0-6, 2-6; No. 4 Mara Holland (Decorah) did not finish versus Gabby Flynn (Xavier); No. 5 Kristi Kjome-Johnson (Decorah) was defeated by Ella Tallett (Xavier) 3-6, 1-6; No. 6 Kendra Bigler (Decorah) was defeated by Avery Link (Xavier) 3-6, 1-6
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