Sterling, Brodersen lead Newton girls tennis at individual regionals

PELLA — Playing together for one of the final times in their careers, Newton seniors Brooklyn Sterling and Sloan Brodersen came within one victory from the state tournament on Wednesday.

The Cardinals competed in the Class 1A Region 4 individual tournament and Brodersen and Sterling claimed the team’s only wins for the day.

But the Newton duo was defeated in their final two matches and settled for fourth place in the doubles bracket.

Kaetlin McPartlin and Makenzie Clark both lost their opening-round singles matches and Ava Williams and Camryn Andrew also lost to the eventual doubles champions at Central College.

“I’m just proud of my team,” Newton head girls tennis coach Erick Zehr said. “They’ve faced adversity all season long and never gave up. They love playing tennis and love playing together and it shows.”

Most of the tournament was played at Pella High School’s courts at Caldwell Park. Some of the first-round matches were played at Central College and the end of the tournament was moved to The Trio in Oskaloosa due to weather.

Sterling and Brodersen opened their tournament with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Davenport Assumption’s Kaydence Crowe and Iza Soliz.

The Newton duo cruised past No. 3 seeded Mylee Miller and Emily Glenn of Clarke 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

That moved them to the match that decided a state berth, but No. 2 seeded Reagan DeJong and Addison VanWyk of Pella defeated Brodersen and Sterling 6-4, 6-2.

That match featured a delayed start and then a suspension after just one game at Caldwell Park. The Cardinal duo took the opening game before the match moved to The Trio, a sports entertainment facility in Oskaloosa that features indoor tennis courts.

In the third-place match, Sterling and Brodersen lost 6-4, 6-2 to No. 4 seed Charley Dilulio and Julia Reagan of Assumption.

“(Sterling) and (Brodersen) put some of the pieces together and really hit a good rhythm to dictate how points played out,” Zehr said. “They played four very good teams and played well against all of them.”

Pella’s Abby Hietbrink and Addi Namminga, the region’s top seeded doubles team, won the championship after sweeping their competition.

They opened with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Newton’s Andrew and Williams and lost three games total in the tournament.

McPartlin lost her singles match 6-1, 6-2 to Pella’s Macy Westerkamp and Clark fell in her opening-round singles match to Oskaloosa’s Hailey Montgomery.

Clark took the opening set 6-2, but the match went to a third-set tiebreaker after Montgomery won the second set 6-2.

Clark rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 6-4 in the tiebreaker but was eliminated after a 10-6 loss.

“There’s lot of emotions, but I can’t say enough about how proud I am of my senior leaders especially,” Zehr said.

Assumption’s Lea Patrick, the top seed in the singles bracket and a state-ranked player, swept her way to the regional championship. She dropped only three games in the tournament.

Oskaloosa’s Loghan Edgar, who was seeded third, also advanced to state after finishing second.

“We missed having (Morgan Frehse) with us, and at full strength, she definitely would have had a shot,” Zehr said. “Bad injury lucky bit us this year.”

The Cardinals will face Mount Vernon in the team portion of regionals at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Mount Vernon.