Girls tennis: Bulldogs win in the wind at East
Apr. 25—DES MOINES — The Ottumwa High School girls tennis team took a tough Iowa Alliance south division win on Tuesday on a windy night in Des Moines.
The Bulldogs won, 10-1, to Des Moines East, sweeping the Scarlets in five of six singles matches dropping just one game in the process. Ottumwa added five more wins doubles play, including four sweeps in which the Bulldogs dropped just five total games.
"There were a lot of girls that took advantage of the wind and came up in the net to put the ball away quickly," Ottumwa head girls tennis coach Leanna White said. "We also had some new doubles teams that we put together."
Julia Diaz de Entresotos joined Emerson Keith for a thrilling battle in the No. 2 doubles match for Ottumwa, edging Kate Stemsrud and Jennifer Martinez in a 6-0, 5-7, 1-0 (10-4) victory.
"Our girls did a good job communicating and covering each others' backs on deep shots," White said.
Ottumwa (4-3) fell to Ames on Thursday, 9-2, in a tough road battle that featured three tiebreakers in 10 matches. Jordan Lee secured one of those key tiebreakers, edging Helen Mao in the No. 3 singles match winning a 10-2 third-set super-breaker to secure a 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 win for the Bulldogs while Nellie Morgan battled Adeline Oetker in a tough No. 2 singles match, falling in a pair of 7-5 sets.
"This was probably the most deuce points I have ever watched," White said. "Ava and Jaslyn (Parsypo) each moved a spot in singles and held their own. Jordan came out on top after getting down in the second set and coming back to dominate the tiebreaker. Nellie also had several games that went to deuce in a very evenly-matches No. 2 singles match."
Hunter Caldwell and Ava Barnes also went the distance to earn a win over the Little Cyclones in doubles play, matching Elle Nguyen and Megan Lennon by winning the second set of the No. 3 doubles match 6-4 after falling by the same score in the first set. Caldwell and Barnes earned the win for Ottumwa, winning the third-set super-tiebreaker 10-3.
"Ava and Hunter pulled out a great win," White said. "They did a great job being aggressive at the net and hustling after some tough shots."
Ottumwa is scheduled to return to the court on Saturday at the Pella Invitational. Action gets underway, weather permitting, at 9 a.m.
