GRINNELL — It has been a long time since Newton High’s girls lost a regular-season Little Hawkeye Conference tennis dual meet.
Grinnell’s Tigers roared to a 10-1 win over the Cardinals Monday. The Cardinals are 1-1 in LHC play this season. Newton had gone 6-0 in the past two seasons in conference dual action, winning 15 straight.
“Grinnell is a strong team top to bottom. Outside of the couple matches were blown out in, the matches that were close were really, really close,” said Erick Zehr, Newton head coach. “If we had won the close matches instead of losing them, it would have been a different story.”
Players had to contend with very windy and cold conditions throughout the meet. Zehr said there were times it was spitting rain.
“It was not a great day for tennis,” he said.
The lone win for the Cardinals came in the No. 5 singles’ match. Kate Wyre dominated Brittany Brown in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.
Wyre and Madison Humphrey teamed up for Newton in the No. 3 doubles spot and lost a three-set tiebreaker match. Kenzie Ellis and Bailey Moore rallied to beat Wyre and Humphrey 3-6, 7-5, 10-7.
“Kate and Madison were in control of their match. They were up a set and leading 5-4 in the second, but dropped the second set. After a 7-7 tie in the third, they lost three straight points. It was the final match of the evening.”
Grinnell was able to win two three-set tiebreaker matches in singles play. Ellis took a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win over Newton’s Katherine Thorpe at No. 6 singles. Maddie Krumm beat Newton’s Megan Pressgrove, 7-5, 7-6 (2), in the No. 3 singles match.
Zehr said Pressgrove led in both sets and Thorpe battled back from big deficits in her match.
Newton’s McKenna Heisdorffer and Sierra Griffth dropped 6-2, 6-1 decisions to Grinnell’s Lily Hamilton and Kiara Peterson in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches, respectively. At No. 4 singles, Marisa Modlin of Newton lost 6-3, 6-4 to Emma Hartz.
In the No. 1 doubles match, Heisdorffer and Pressgrove were ahead in both sets before losing 7-5, 7-5 to Peterson and Krumm. Hamilton and Hartz downed Newton’s Griffith and Modlin, 6-0, 6-0, in the No. 2 doubles match.
Grinnell’s Brittany Brown and Dana Brown beat Newton’s Thorpe and Melanie Stice, 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4 doubles. Newton’s Elizabeth Myers and Brenda Becerra lost 6-1, 6-2 to Amanda Arensdorf and Alissa Stallman in the No. 5 doubles match.
“I think our youth and inexperience finally caught up to us. We got tentative in the big moments today, which is not something that has defined us in the past,” Zehr said. “We’ll try and figure out what adjustments we can make going forward.”
He said there is no time to feel sorry for themselves with LHC duals at Oskaloosa Tuesday and Pella Thursday. Zehr said he considers those teams as the other two strongest teams in the conference.
“Our junior varsity saw its strongest performance of the year, beating Grinnell 10-7,” Zehr said.
Newton’s JV singles play: Myers lost 6-3; Bethany Baumgartner lost 6-2; Natalie Camp lost 4-1.
Newton’s JV doubles play: Jordyn Soule and Baumgartner beat Link and Brennecke, 6-5; Soule and Baumgartner beat Bagnoli and Hatch, 6-1; Arianna Jamieson and Camp beat Ostos-Arrelos and Rosburg, 6-4; Jamieson and Camp beat Stoebel and Cha, 6-1; Maddie Gooding-Hunt and Echo Downs beat Hatting and Marks, 6-4; Gooding-Hunt and Downs beat Flanagan and Innis, 6-0.
Kinzie Lorree and Rylie Bakalar beat Moore and Wiegand, 6-5; Loree and Bakalar lost to Campbell and Kibbee, 6-3; Stacie Sanger and Isabella Leach beat Crawford and Chang-Roper, 6-4; Sanger and Leach lost to Deserrano and Kirby, 6-2; GiGi Chen and Morgan Modlin beat Mackey and Michelle Krumm, 6-1; Chen and Morgan Modlin lost to Kastendick and Dugas, 6-1; Hayley Sinclair and Haley Walton beat Lopez and Newman, 6-1; Sinclair and Walton lost to More as and Ostos-Arrelos, 6-1.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com