The Webster City Lynx girls tennis team made the short trek west on Wednesday afternoon, as they competed in the annual North Central Conference Tournament at Dodger Stadium in Fort Dodge. The Lynx were joined by fellow NCC schools in Clear Lake, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, Iowa Falls-Alden, Nevada (tennis only) and St. Edmond.
The story of the day for the Lynx would be the dominance of the doubles team of Joslin Gourley and Trinity Griffith. The dynamic duo came in as the one-seed and proved that they were deserving of that #1 seed, as they blew threw the first two rounds, highlighted by a dominating 8-2 win in the semifinals over Payton Bradley and Cambree Lunn of St. Edmond’s to enter into the championship match. It would be much of the same as Griffith and Gourley upended Iowa Falls-Alden’s Aubrey Johnson and Lauren Wood to capture the North Central Conference title in the doubles.
The other doubles pair for the Lynx included Allie Severe and Adeline Tesdahl, a duo that would place 6th out of the 12 duos entered into the tournament. The first round saw them fall to Nevada’s August Martinez and Allie Dittmer, before bouncing back with a win over Clear Lake’s Makayla Martin and Kara Ouverson by an 8-2 margin. Tesdahl and Severe would fall once more to IF-A’s Joslin Johnson and Hailey Bridgewater, before closing their day in the 6th place match with an 8-5 win over Nevada’s Brooklyn Estes and Meagan McGaffin.
In the singles tournament, Isabelle Feldhaus would be the top Lynx placer by finishing 3rd, defeating Nevada’s Paige Handsaker in the 1st round 9-8, before dropping an 8-0 decision to #1 overall seed Manuela Rodriguez. Feldhaus rounded out her day with an 8-2 win over Nevada’s Emma DePenning. Mckinzey Koestner would place 7th for the Lynx, dropping a 9-8 decision to Emma DePenning in the opening round, before blanking HD-CAL’s Paulina Blasquez in the following round. Koestner would fall to Clear Lake’s Macey Brant 8-3 in the following round, before winning the 7th place match in a rematch with Emma DePenning, 8-4.
Webster City would place runner-up in the tournament with 19 points, as St. Edmond was the tournament champion with 26 points. The Lynx return to action next Wednesday for their Class 1A Regional Tournament in Decorah.