It is finally state tournament time on the girls side! The boys tournaments are wrapping up today and the girls individual state tournaments are taking place Friday and Saturday while the team tournament finishes up on next Wednesday. Lots of great opportunities lie ahead for all qualifiers in the coming days to cement their name in Iowa HS Tennis history. Excited to continue to follow along as the season approaches its close for the 2024 chapter.
2024 State Tournament Notes
Locations
2A: Johnston High School (Johnston, IA)
1A: Hawkeye Tennis & Rec. Center (Iowa City, IA)
Attendance Fees
The IGHSAU is charging an admission fee of $10 per day of the individual state tournament and team state tournament on May 29. For more information, please visit: https://www.gobound.com/ia/ighsau/girlstennis/2023-24/tickets
Live Results
The state will be entering results as matches come off. Updated brackets throughout the tournament can be found here: Postseason HQ
2A
The Singles Bracket
#1 ranked and heavy favorite for the singles crown, Katelynn Kock from Cedar Rapids Washington gets to start her quest Friday for a state singles title. Kock is a doubles and team state champion over the past two years, and is looking to complete an individual triple crown. The remaining seeds in this years tournament: Lily Holland of CR Jefferson, Mackenzie Sagers of Cedar Falls, and Sescie Haan of Clinton round of the no. 2-4 seed in this years draw. All 3 of them are sophomores of younger. This is going to be Kock's tournament to lose as she is been absolutely dominant all season and nobody has been able to keep up, including the other 3 seeds in the draw that all had a crack at her during the regular season. Other veteran faces appear in the draw including Ella Gilbert and Lauren Masengarb, multiple time singles state qualifiers in their own right. I am thinking all players that win the first round on Friday, are going to end up being the top 8 medal finishers come the end of the day on Saturday.
Edit as of 5/23 afternoon: #2 Seed Lexi Moen (Valley) and Sam Becker (CR Wash) have withdrawn from the tournament due to injury/illness respectively. Anna Schlesinger (Linn-Mar) and Talia Baca (Ankeny Centennial) have been added to the field.
Seeds
Katelynn Kock, CR Washington
Lily Holland, CR Jefferson
Mackenzie Sagers, Cedar Falls
Sescie Haan, Clinton
1st Round Match to Watch:
Madelyn Jepsen (North Scott) vs Ella Gilbert (IC Liberty) - A freshman vs senior matchup in round one. Gilbert enters as a 4th time state qualifier and a veteran of Iowa HS Tennis, while Jepsen has come onto the scene and has had a great rookie season. An absolute battle tomorrow morning I think will see who wants it more come through and reach the quarters.
Singles Champion Prediction:
Katelynn Kock (Cedar Rapids Washington)
The Doubles Bracket
No defending champs from last years doubles tournament are back in the draw in 2024. With Kock the only returning player from those four, and in the singles draw, new champions will be crowned over the weekend. Dowling, the top team in the state, boasts the number one seed coming into the event with a pair of juniors in Juju Mauro and Grace Frye. This duo is going to be the team to beat. Overall, this is a very competitive doubles draw and there will not be easy matches anywhere throughout. All of the seeded teams are going to be tough to take out, and then add in Goad/Hartman of Marion, Hilton/Taylor of Waukee NW, Brandt/Harris of Linn-Mar as well as Dowling's second pair and the Valley tandems. A ton of opportunity here in the doubles field in 2024, sit back and enjoy the matches!
Seeds
Juju Mauro/Grace Frye, Dowling
Anna Christensen/Sedina Begic, Waterloo West
Allie Christensen/Katie Hendrickson, Johnston
Jordan Ingram/Kaj Kabongo, Pleasant Valley
1st Round Match to Watch:
Michaela Goad/Natalee Hartman (Marion) vs Riley Hilton/London Taylor (Waukee NW) - Veteran seniors take on the freshmen phenoms. What a match for round one, where I believe the winner is good enough to potentially go all the way when its said and done. The Marion duo were one of the top teams in 1A last year and would've been in line to win 1A this year, but they have answered the bell and have shown out with the big schools. NW has 4 freshmen in their top 4 spots, and here are two of them in Hilton and Taylor. Coming into their own all season and pushing Dowling to the brink last weekend in team quarterfinals.
Doubles Champions Prediction:
Grace Frye/Juju Mauro (Dowling)
1A
The Singles Bracket
Here we go, time for the Gabi Fleming show. The best player in 1A gets to get her state tournament debut underway on Friday in Iowa City. Some nerves will be expected early on as the heavy favorite for the singles title and being her first state tournament. Fleming has a nice first couple rounds to get things warmed up and a favorable draw to reach the finals. On the other half, 2nd and 3rd ranked Kate Holton, and Emily Blom are expected to battle it out in the semi-finals and hope to challenging Fleming in the finals. Holton has the head to head win over Blom this season. This will most likely be the match of the singles tournament if they meet in the semis, as both will have tough second round matches to get there potentially facing Neymeyer and Tobin on the way. A surprising 4th seed in Jana Vila of Mt. Pleasant, as it was expected the 4th ranked Adria Neymeyer would be seeded or Kaitlyn Zugay. Zugay being in this quarter is a big opportunity for her to get to the semis. I think the top 6 spots should be pretty well accounted for, and then there will be a number of others fighting for the last two medals.
Seeds
Gabi Fleming, Xavier
Kate Holton, Columbus
Emily Blom, Pella
Jana Vila, Mt. Pleasant
1st Round Match to Watch:
Saydie Roling (Central Dewitt) vs Merced Ramirez (Red Oak) - New team on the block Central Dewitt will take on a historically strong program in Red Oak when Roling and Ramirez face off in the round of 16. Roling fell to Aidalyn Tott of DNH her last time out in singles in the team quarterfinals and Ramirez finished runner-up in her district. Thinking this match could be the most competitive of all the round one matchups.
Singles Champion Prediction:
Gabi Fleming (Xavier)
The Doubles Bracket
Open season in 1A doubles state this spring! What a treat of a draw this is going to be as I do not think there is a clear favorite at all. The top 4 seeds could have ended up in all sorts of directions when that meeting happened and this is what we got! The Olson twins out of Osage, I believe are the highest finishing returning pair that placed in 2023. Non-seeded duos to pay attention too include; Smock/Higginbotham of Pella, Bloom/Pierce of CD, Cakinberk/Mangae of North Polk and Else/VandusselDorp of Pella. Talk about tough competitive matches all around, I don't think anybody has an "easy" path to the finals. Maybe a record amount of third set matches will happen here in 2024. Be ready for some surprises!
Seeds
Kendall Olson/Kaitlyn Olson, Osage
Avery Link/Ruby Smith, Xavier
Aidalyn Tott/Izzy Norton, DNH
Jersie Nitchals/Kennedy Paul, Estherville
1st Round Match to Watch:
All of them! Literally every single match of this event is a match to watch in my eyes. Bring plenty of popcorn.
Doubles Champions Prediction:
Avery Link/Ruby Smith (Xavier)
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