Panthers perservere in blustery regional conditions

ATLANTIC — “If you want to talk about a brutal day to play tennis, today was that day,” Creston coach Kevin Cooper said. “It was so windy and cold that sometimes the girls had to wait until the wind died down to even try to serve it.”

After winning four singles matches and the No. 1 doubles bout, Creston took a 5-1 victory over Atlantic to advance to the Region 2 semifinals today in Shenandoah.

“In this format, once a team has five points, they don’t play another point, the matches come off the court and the team with five is the winner,” Cooper explained.

No. 4 Kennedy Strider and No. 3 Hollynn Rieck were the first two to come off the court with singles wins.

Strider took down Atlantic junior Addie Freund in two sets — 6-3 and 6-2.

In a similar fashion, Rieck defeated Trojan senior Brady Wagner in two sets — 6-0 and 6-1.

Senior Sasha Wurster finished her No. 2 singles match 2-0 against Dani Bennett. She won the sets 6-2 and 6-4. Bennett made a comeback in set two after going down 5-0, but Wurster held her off for the win.

Freshman Marlee Stalker won her No. 6 singles match in two sets with 6-2 and 6-4 set victories.

Senior Ava Adamson and Trojan sophomore Lilly Willrich went longer in their No. 1 singles bout.

Adamson fell 7-5 in a competitive set one. In the second, she was defeated 6-2, the Panthers only loss in singles.

Rieck and Wurster took the court for doubles, dominating the duo of Willrich and Bennett, winning 6-1 and 6-3 to put up the Panthers’ fifth win of the day.

The win came as the rain had started to fall, stopping Shaylee Coen’s No. 5 singles bout and Adamson and Strider’s No. 2 doubles match. The No. 3 doubles competition never began.

Coen and opponent Shauna Anderson were on their third match after Coen lost set one in a tiebreaker and won set two 6-2.

The No. 2 doubles team completed one set where Adamson and Strider won 7-5.

“Both teams battled, and we were happy to get the win,” Cooper said. “Atlantic is so well coached, and they ended our season last year.”

The Panthers play Hawkeye 10 champion Clarinda at 11 a.m. today in Shenandoah for a shot at the Region 2 finals which is played today at 3 p.m. The winner will face the winner of Sergeant Bluff-Luton and Shenandoah.

The region champion team advances to state.