Postseason Process

It has been a couple of years since I wrote this article on how the postseason process works for Iowa High School Boys and Girls tennis. I took a little bit of time to clean it up and make it hopefully even easier to read and follow as we progress through the 2022 edition of Iowa HS Tennis. 

*Team postseason play defaults to state scoring. State scoring = 6 singles matches and 3 doubles matches for a total of 9 matches. Team postseason meets are played to decision, when a team wins 5 matches to clinch the meet*

Boys Postseason Process

1. Districts

2. Preliminary Substate

3. Substate

4. Individual State

5. Team State

Districts
Each season, the largest 48 schools in the state are declared the 2A division in tennis, with the rest of the schools making up the 1A division. 

Teams are sorted in districts to begin postseason play. Typically, these districts are dictated by geography. Each team is allowed to enter 2 singles players and 2 doubles pairs for a total of 6 players. A player can be entered in either the singles OR doubles draw, not both. 

Singles and doubles draws are made the morning of districts day, and these draws have implications for individual and team advancement. Districts is a single elimination tournament. The two entries from the same school begin on the opposite side of the draw. 

-----Individual implications: the champion and runner-up for both singles and doubles qualify for the state singles/doubles tournament. 

-----Team implications: Individual entries gain points for the team for each round they advance. Singles players earn 2 points per win/bye and doubles pairs earn 3 points per win/bye. 

The team that has the most points at the end of the day is the district champion and advances to substate. The 2nd and 3rd place team will play a dual meet (preliminary substate) on the Saturday immediately following districts with the winner advancing to substate with the 1st place team. 

Preliminary Substate
The 2nd and 3rd place teams from each district play a dual meet on the Saturday immediately following districts. The winner of the dual meet advances to substate. 

Substate
Each district team winner and winners of the preliminary substate dual meets advance to substate, leaving 16 teams remaining. 

Substate is set up by having two districts paired with each other (again typically by geography). The winner of district A will play the winner of the prelim substate match of district B. Winner of district B will play the winner of the prelim substate match of district A. Winners of these matches play each other in the substate final (now the team state quarterfinals). Whichever team advances through their substate/quarterfinal will reach the team state final four.

Individual State
District champions and runner-ups in the singles and doubles draws have qualified for the individual state tournament. 

State tournament draws are made the week of leading up to the start on Friday. There is a coaches meeting including all coaches of players in the draws to determine the top 4 seeds. This 16 player singles draw and 16 doubles pairs draw is double elimination where the top 8 finish as place-winners. 

Team State
The 4 teams that make it through their substates/quarterfinals will play for the championship in one day. These 4 teams are reseeded 1-4 with #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3 in the semi-finals. Winners play for the championship and the losers play for 3rd place. This takes place in one day following the individual state tournaments. 

Girls Postseason Process

1. Individual Regionals

2. Team Regionals

3. Individual State

4. Team State

Individual Regionals
Individual regionals is almost identical to districts on the boys side. The main difference is that there are no team implications. Teams are allowed to enter 2 singles players and 2 doubles pairs into their regionals. The regional champions and runner-ups qualify for the individual state singles and doubles tournament. Draws are made the morning of regionals day. 

Team Regionals

All teams are placed into a draw, meaning each team has a change to advance to state and become state champions. 

It is broken down into 4 region, normally geography based. A host school is determined for the first few rounds. 

The regional finals (quarterfinals) is known as the first round of the state tournament. Teams who win this round (their regional) advance to the final four. The final four is held on one day playing the team semi-finals, finals and 3rd place dual meets. 

Individual State

Individual regional champions and runner-ups in the singles and doubles draws have qualified for the individual state tournament. 

State tournament draws are made the week of leading up to the start. There is a coaches meeting including all coaches of players in the draws to determine the top 4 seeds. This 16 player singles draw and 16 doubles pairs draw is double elimination where the top 8 finish as place-winners. 

Team State
The 4 teams that make it through their regions/quarterfinals will play for the championship in one day. These 4 teams are reseeded 1-4 with #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3 in the semi-finals. Winners play for the championship and the losers play for 3rd place.