Topeka-area girls tennis at the state tournament: Everything you need to know
The postseason for fall sports has officially arrived.
Tennis is up first and takes place Friday and Saturday with Washburn Rural (6A), Topeka High (6A), Seaman (5A), Hayden (4A) and Rossville (3-2-1A) representing the Topeka-area schools.
Here's everything you need to know.
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Locations for the Topeka-area teams competing at states
On Thursday, at all sites, the opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. with competition consisting of the first three rounds of singles and doubles taking place.
On Saturday, the competition resumes at 9 a.m. At noon, there will be an introduction of participants prior to the state championship matches.
After those matches conclude, the presentation of trophies to the top three teams and medals to the top 12 singles and doubles participants will be distributed.
For brackets for each of the classifications, click here.
6A: Wichita-Riverside Tennis Complex: 551 Nims, Wichita, 67203
5A: Andover District Tennis Complex: 603 E. Central, Andover, 67002
4A: Prairie Village-Harmon Park Tennis Complex: 7727 Delmar, Prairie Village, 66208
3-2-1A: Kossover Tennis Center: 2501 SW Gage Blvd., Topeka, 66614
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Topeka-area girls tennis state qualifiers
6A
Washburn Rural
Washburn Rural (21) eked out the regional title win, qualifying all six of its players with Manhattan (20) and Topeka High (11) rounding out the top three teams.
Seniors Kate Fritz and Meredith Kucera (28-4) won the regional doubles title, defeating Topeka High's Adisyn Caryl and Hailey Carpenter (6-0, 6-2) in the championship match.
Junior Mena DiMarzio (19-13) would defeat teammate and senior Kayla Peter (6-0, 6-1) to finish third in singles while Peter finished fourth.
Peter (16-11) defeated Wichita Heights' Rania Schneider (4-6, 6-0, 10-6) and Topeka High's Madeline Deters (6-0, 6-3) before falling to Manhattan's Jill Harkin in straight sets.
Senior Hailey Beck and junior Claire Ireland (3-1) took third in doubles to qualify.
Comments from coach Brad Johnston: We overcame the adversity just the bad losses that happened earlier. They overcame those and the next time they went out to play those same teams, it was not the same mentality. I think they're just peaking at the right time. That certainly is all them. It's what they do out on the court.
Fun fact: Johnston is in his first year as head coach of the program. He grew up in the area and is a Topeka West alum. Johnston says in addition to staying in touch with former Washburn Rural head coach Kevin Hedburg, he talks to his former coach when questions arise.
Topeka High
Topeka High is sending four players to state.
In singles, freshman Madeline Deters (17-10) would defeat junior McCall Beall (10-9) in the fifth-place match (6-2, 6-4) to send them both to state.
Seniors Adisyn Caryl and Haley Carpenter (23-6) took second in doubles, falling to Washburn Rural's Kate Fritz and Meredith Kucera (6-0, 6-2) in the doubles championship match.
"It's really great when you have a team that's able to play together for three years, in their third trip to state," said Topeka High coach Duane Pomeroy on Caryl and Carpenter. "They've really become cohesive. They're much more in tune with each other this year.
"They want to advance to the second day."
Comments from coach Duane Pomeroy on matches that gave his state qualifiers momentum heading into the postseason: For the doubles, and for Madeline, it was the the Topeka High Invitational. The doubles won that tournament over Olathe East and then Madeline lost in the finals playing at the number one singles spot. They had some real good wins in that tournament.
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5A
Seaman
Seaman (24) dominated its 5A Regional at Empora with De Soto (9), Blue Valley Southwest (9), Emporia (8) and Spring Hill (8) their closest competitors.
Senior Lauren Sweeney (29-5) won the singles titles and junior Katie Krumins and freshman Molly Gorman (24-3) won the doubles title.
Sweeney would beat Emporia's Kali Keough (6-0, 6-0) in the championship match, and Krumins and Gorman would beat teammates Kate Eckert and Ella Foxhoven for the doubles title.
Senior Nina Del Zio (27-9) took fourth at regionals, defeating Blue Valley Southwest's Jensen Gibbs (6-4, 6-6 (3) in the third-place match.
Comments from coach Jamie Robinson: We have a lot of depth, and that has helped us a lot more this year. There are good players to play against in practice, and that's made them better. We've won most of the tournaments that we played — lost city — but we rebounded winning league and then regionals. We're going into state with a lot of momentum.
Fun facts: Sweeney played singles for part of her freshman year until joining forces with the now graduated Grace Unruh. After winning the doubles state title, going undefeated, Sweeney made the transition back to singles this year and hasn't lost to a 5A opponent.
Krumins and Gorman have known each other since they were young with both playing tennis at the Topeka Country Club as kids.
4A
Hayden
Hosting a 4A Regional, Hayden (10) beat out Bishop Miege (9) and Chapman (8) for the regional title.
All six players qualified for Hayden with returning state champion and sophomore Ainzley Zulueta (24-2) claiming the singles title and junior Lauren Sandstrom and sophomore Emily Sheetz (30-4) taking the doubles title.
Zulueta defeated Chapman's Elyssa Frieze in the title game while Sandstrom and Sheetz also had a first-round bye, beat Bishop Miege's Emma Lazarczk and Claire Winklhofer to claim the regional doubles title (6-4, 6-1).
Freshman Grace Funk (17-5) placed sixth at regionals, falling to Chapman's Avery Baer in the fifth-place match (6-7 (4), 6-0, 6-1).
Senior Bri Barnett and Sloane Sims (23-12) finished fourth after losing to Wamego's Sarah Jones and Brittney Crubel (7-5, 4-6, 6-3).
Comments from coach Christy Sheetz on state championship potential: We try to think just one match ahead, take care of what is coming up. But I think we were at the Baldwin Invitational, and I'm kind of having this realization that this is a possibility. We've even talked about it, how we can come home with a state championship. We shall see, the greatest plans can be disrupted. We're just hoping that we can execute and play as well as we know we can. None of us will give up and that's part of the reason why we've been so successful.
Fun fact: At regionals, doubles champions Lauren Sandstrom and Emily Sheetz came back from an 0-4 deficit in their first against Bishop Miege before winning 11 straight to win the title.
3-2-1A
Rossville
After a first-round bye at the Marysville Regional, senior Alivia Sherer (19-8) defeated Hillsboro's Annalies Jorgensen (9-2) and Marantha Christian's Sarah Boles (6-1, 6-0) before falling to Sacred Heart's Katherine Weiss in three sets (7-5, 3-6, 6-3).
Sherer took third by defeating Smoky Valley's Magdalena Rauchholz (6-1, 6-2).
Tips or story ideas? Email Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com or DM him on Twitter @SethKinker.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Five Topeka-area teams, 23 athletes head to tennis state tournament
