It is finally state tournament time, what we have been waiting for since the end of the 2019 season! I think I can speak on behalf of everyone involved in high school tennis this year that we are all just so happy and grateful that a season was able to take place and be held this spring. For the most part, things have been pretty normal besides the extra Covid precautions at meets. We have had our usual annoying and bad weather filled with rain and wind, so the normal. The forecast for Friday/Saturday is about a typical as it gets for the state tournament. One of the days seems to have to be played inside, or so it seems the last decade. Regardless, this is the best time of the year for Iowa high school tennis!
2021 State Tournament Notes
Locations
2A is set to be played at Vets in Cedar Rapids as usual. With the weather set to possibly have rain, as I write this the plan at the moment would be a very long day at Coe College inside. The plans may change here before the day is over but as I write this that is the plan. For those of you that do not know, Westfield Tennis Club in CR is not playable due to damage suffered from the derecho this past summer. Since I am lazy and don't want to delete what I wrote above here, it sounds that singles may be played at HTRC in Iowa City and doubles to be played at Coe.
1A is set to be played at Byrnes in Waterloo, again as usual. Should played need to be moved inside, my speculation is that Black Hawk Tennis club and possibly Wartburg College would be the main options. I haven't heard anything on inclement weather plans for 1A as of now.
Early Draws!
This is the first time in my recollection that the draws were done before the morning of the first day of the tournament. I don't know how everyone else feels about that, but I am beyond happy that it was finally done this way and the draws were made ahead of time. As a player myself, and a fan over the past number of years, I thought it was incredibly pointless making the draws the morning of. The meeting seem to always take forever and teams arrive early to warm up, but then have to wait 2-3 hours before they start playing, some wait even longer if they are not one of the first matches on. This may be the biggest win of the tournament before it even gets started!
Attendance Fees
The IHSAA is now charging an admission fee of $10 per day of the individual state tournament and team state tournament next week. As I expressed my feelings about this on twitter the other day, I am not a fan at all. There have been such great crowds over the years on all three of these days in both divisions and I hate to see it possibly be affected by that. I did like the idea that Pella tweeted in regards to my tweet on this, that it would be nice to see these funds used for streaming of the state tournaments in some fashion and I would agree 100% and be all for this. Really hope they have some sort of idea on what these funds are for...
Individuals will need to have a ticket to get into the state tournament and as a result will receive a wristband. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/
Live Brackets
I will again be providing live results for all four brackets throughout the next two days! As I can't be everywhere at once, as always I very much appreciate all of you who provide me scores so I can add to the brackets. Each bracket can be viewed here:
2A
The Singles Bracket
The 2A Singles field. is. deep. 14 of the 16 qualifiers are upperclassman, besides Jayden Shin of Iowa City West and Reed Kruger of Mason City. That means the rest have all have played a full high school season before 2021. Will Blevins of Centennial and Daniel Lu of Dowling are the lead returners as they finished 4th and 5th in the 2019 singles tournament and happen to be the only returning place winners from two years ago. This field is filled with a lot of 2019 tournament qualifiers including Will Ecklund - Doubles Champ, Eli Young - Doubles Runner-Up, Jake Dolphin - 3rd Place Doubles, Parker Sprague, Sam Brown and Grayson Zylstra to go along with Lu and Blevins. That is a lot of talent in one field! I personally think there is upwards of eight players that can really compete for the singles title. That being said, we should have some very exciting quarterfinal matchups and even first round matches depending on how the draw shakes out Friday morning. Even though Blevins is the highest returning singles place winner from two years ago, he was not eligible to be seeded as Lu beat him in their district final.
Seeds
- Will Ecklund, Waukee
- Daniel Lu, Dowling
- Jake Dolphin, Pleasant Valley
- Eli Young, IC West
1st Round Match to Watch:
#3 Jake Dolphin (Pleasant Valley) v Jayden Shin (IC West) - Dolphin comes into the bracket as the #3 seed in this years singles tournament in his junior campaign and gets a first round matchup with one of the two underclassmen in Shin. The winner of this will have two tough matches to start their Friday as they would most likely face Grayson Zylstra in round two. Should be the most competitive match of round one.
The Doubles Bracket
Unlike the singles field, the doubles draw is not as deep in terms of how many duos I think can really contend in the championship. With that, there are going to be some pairs that prove me wrong and other pairs who really show up have a tremendous couple of days and that is something the state tournament so fun to watch. Nearly 1/3 of the players in the doubles draw are freshman and sophomores, quite a few more percentage wise when compared to the singles field, meaning there are a lot more players here that are nearing the finish line of their first full high school tennis season.
Seeds
- Taylor/Monson, Waukee
- Kasturirangan/Chackalackal, Iowa City West
- Gadde/Sivakumar, Linn-Mar
- Barlow/Brunsvold, Pleasant Valley
1st Round Match to Watch:
Amalkar/Sissel (Valley) v Althaus/Kassas (Dubuque Hempstead) - The #1 duos for each team will face off in a first round matchup that I think will be quite a good battle. This is an interesting section of the draw that includes the #4 seed of Pleasant Valley and I do think this is a section that any of the four tandems can make it to the semi-finals. You have to bring it, and this might be a great opportunity for one of these duos.
1A
The Singles Bracket
Cameron Luhring of Aplington-Parkersburg headlines the 1A singles bracket this year. The Nebraska-Omaha commit and 2019 defending singles champion comes in as the #1 seed and is the overwhelming favorite to repeat his title. The question this year is how many games will he drop this time around? I believe if I remember correctly, in 2019 he dropped one game all tournament and that was in the finals. There are plenty of other talented players that are in the singles field this year and have a chance to make a good run. The other seeds along with Luhring, Heap of Pella, Craven of Boone and Miller of St. Albert look to be in the semi-finals on Saturday. This is a unique opportunity for anyone in the draw to really get after it and make a name for themselves. While I don't think anyone else is on Luhring's level, I do think there is going to be some competitive and long grinding matches
Seeds
1. Cameron Luhring, Aplington-Parkersburg
2. Lucas Heap, Pella
3. Ben Craven, Boone
4. Jeff Miller, St. Albert
1st Round Match to Watch:
Abbot Haner (Keokuk) v Brock Bruns (Harlan) - Why did I pick this matchup as the first round match to watch? Honestly, I don't know anything about either of these two so why not pick them as the one to watch! Haner won in his district and Bruns was runner up to Miller in his district. It doesn't appear either of these two went through a grueling schedule over the court of the season and put together nice marks in singles play. Anything can happen!
The Doubles Bracket
The opposite of the singles draw, the doubles field looks to be very competitive with a lot of pairs having a really good shot at being champions come Saturday afternoon. There look to be a lot of good matches out of the gate and potential upset bids tomorrow. If my research is correct, there are only two underclassman (Blackford of Marion and Branum of Decorah) which means this is a veteran field with a lot of guys who have been to the state tournament before. Along with the top four seeds, Grinnell, Xavier #2, Columbus and more sport strong duos that will be putting up a fight all weekend long. Grinnell and Pella along with Columbus and Decorah had marathon district finals that went down to the wire in the 3rd sets and I would not be surprised if some of these matchups happen again at some point during the weekend.
Seeds
1. Horstmann/Schmit, Xavier
2. Edwards/Thompson, Pella
3. Fair/Freiburger, Wahlert
4. Anderson/Branum, Decorah
1st Round Matches to Watch:
#4 Anderson/Branum (Decorah) v Wilkins/Jaworski (Grinnell) - As mentioned above, both pairs were involved in marathon finals in their respective districts. This has the potential to be one of the matches of the tournament and we get it right out of the gate. No club who I think is going to win this one, so lets just enjoy the match!
#3 Fair/Freiburger (Wahlert) v Coe/Courter (Xavier) - I couldn't just pick one match to watch in the first round since there are so many good ones out of the gate. It is always exciting to have a matchup featuring 2 of the top 3 teams in the state in Wahlert and Xavier. Coe and Courter ran into teammates and #1 seed Horstmann/Schmit and took runner-up in their district while Fair and Freiburger rolled through their draw. Fair I think is going to be the x-factor in this match as he has the most state experience, look for the senior to try and lead the way.
Enjoy the tournaments this weekend!
-Iowa HS Tennis
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