A top-10 girls tennis matchup went in favor of Dike-New Hartford Tuesday. The #3 (1A) Wolverines won 6-3 over #10 (1A) Aplington-Parkersburg at the Aplington Recreation Complex.
The dual featured several close matches. At #5 singles, DNH’s Kiersten Christiansen won a 7-4 tiebreaker over Bella Buseman after an 8-8 tie. At #3 doubles, Christiansen and Haley Badker went the distance in a 9-7 win over Jayden Krausman/Holly Haugstad. Head Coach Reegan Zinkula says her team has what it takes to perform well in close matches.
“We talk about all the time, fight until the game is over, it doesn’t matter how it starts, as long as we’re continuing to fight the whole way,” Zinkula says. “And what I love about Kiersten is she never gives up. She started out strong in doubles with Haley Badker. They kind of went into a slump, but they were able to pull that off. And then in singles, she actually battled back. She was down from the get-go and then battled back to get that win in that tiebreaker, which is awesome. She never gives up, which I love about all these girls. They have a lot of grit.”
DNH senior Izzy Norton says it was a great early-season test.
“They’re a great team, and we knew coming in they were gonna push us the whole night from singles and doubles, all levels,” Norton says. “I mean I played Adria who’s really good, so we kind of strategized at the end to move our doubles around a little bit, which I thought ended up being good in the end.”
The Wolverines also had wins by Addy Joslin at #3 singles, Lauren Muller at #4 singles, Badker at #6 singles and Norton/Joslin at #2 doubles.
AP’s wins were by Adria Neymeyer at #1 singles, Peyton Klooster at #2 singles and Neymeyer/Klooster at #1 doubles. Neymeyer says she and Klooster took care of business.
“DNH is just a very good team all around,” Neymeyer says. “Obviously today the weather wasn’t very nice with the wind, but you just learn to adapt to it and learn how to play with it and against it. For my singles match, Izzy was a very good player, very good person to compete against. I found out how to win against her with the wind and with all that going on and the doubles. It looks like they switched them up from their one and two to their one and just someone else farther down. They took a few games off of us, but then we just learned their tactics and what to do and then got back at that.”
Head Coach Haley Schneiderman says the team put themselves in great positions to play well.
“We came out strong tonight,” Schneiderman says. “I knew it was gonna end up being a close one. A lot of those matches could have gone either way. Bella ended up losing a tie breaker 4-7, and she was down 5-7 at one point and ended up coming back to get into the tie break. So I’m really proud of her. Jayden Krausman and Holly Haugstad in number three doubles, they battled back from a 1-6 deficit, and they about made it into a tie breaker. So I’m really proud of them. So we had a lot of matches that could have gone either way. A lot of our girls that did lose in singles only lost 5-8. So I’m really proud of the girls for that.”
The Wolverines (3-0) will return to action Friday at a triangular at #9 (1A) Pella. The Falcons (3-2) will host Oelwein on Monday, April 21.
Adria Neymeyer:
Haley Schneiderman:
Izzy Norton:
Reegan Zinkula:
