Rams’ King eighth at state tennis

Glenwood’s Jana King placed eighth at the Class 1A State Tennis Tournament at the Ankeny Tennis Complex wrapping up Saturday.

King downed Dubuque Wahlert’s Audrey Hinz 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round before falling to top seeded Mara Pirscoveanu of Denison in the quarterfinals. Pirscoveanu defeated King 6-0, 6-1. Pirscoveanu, a foreign exchange student from Romania, went on to win the Class 1A state singles title.

King bounced back in the second-round consolations to defeat Ballard’s Emily Jurgensen 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 and advance to Saturday’s medal round.

Glenwood coach Callie Ohm said King’s play in her third match Thursday was probably the senior’s strongest at state.

“She showed a lot of determination and heart,” Ohm said.  

King lost the opening set 6-2 to Jurgensen before bouncing back to win the next set and the tiebreaker. Match tie breaker rules at state call for the win to come from the first player to 10 points, winning by two.

“The tie break was very close and Jana finally won it on her fourth match point 13-11,” Ohm said.  “Winning this match allowed her a chance to play for fifth and continue to play Friday.  I told her before the match and as it was going on to put everything she had left in her into the game.  It would be awesome to see her play on the second day, which would mean that she would medal.”

In both matches on Friday, King got down in opening sets and could never quite dig herself out.  
“She worked hard but wasn’t able to come out on top,” Ohm said.

King lost her Friday opener to Hannah Fox of Waverly-Shell Rock 6-4, 6-4 and her second match to Aplington-Parkersburg’s Haley Scheiderman 6-2, 6-3 to finish eighth.

King ends the season with a record of 15-7.  Of her seven losses, five came from the trio of Denison’s Pirscoveanu, Red Oak’s Kate Walker, and Council Bluffs Lewis Central’s Abby Bergsten. Pirscoveanu won the Class 1A state singles title, beating Walker in the finals, while Bergsten was fifth in the Class 2A singles bracket.

“I’m very proud of the way she played during the season and especially at state,” Ohm said of King.  “She represented Glenwood well and will definitely be missed next year.  She has been a huge asset to our program the last four years and someone will have big shoes to fill next year at the No. 1 spot.”