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Spirit Lake’s Gerking, Kolegraff Advance, While Veldman Falls (State Tennis RoundUp)

Four area athletes competed at the Iowa girls state tennis championships in Waterloo on Thursday. The doubles tandem of seniors Alli Gerking and Aubrey Kolegraff of Spirit Lake opened the doubles bracket as the number two overall seed in Class 1A, and in the opening round earned a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Ashley Longshore and Thea Dennis of Keokuk. On to the quarterfinals where Gerking and Kolegraff would lose a hard-fought three-set match to Lindsay McGonegle and Lindsay McManus of Waterloo Columbus by scores of 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. The senior duo would rebound for a win in the consolation quarterfinals, besting Denison-Schleswig’s Kristen Alesch and Rachel Ingram, 6-1, 6-1. Gerking and Kolegraff are still alive for day two of the doubles competition and will square off with Katie Meyer and Kathleen Hutchinson of Dubuque Wahlert in the consolation semifinals on Friday.

In the singles bracket, Spirit Lake sophomore KJ Veldman opened her second state tournament appearance with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Minna Mohammadi from Fairfield Maharishi. However, much like her senior teammates, Veldman, the tournament’s No. 4 seed overall. dropped her next match in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-3 against Mary Eide of Ft. Dodge St. Edmond. Veldman’s day and season would end in the consolation quarterfinals as she fell 6-1, 6-4 to Ena Alcan of Fairfield. A similar fate also played out for Estherville-Lincoln Central’s Erin Olson. The senior began play with an opening round loss against Kylie Vogel of Camanche, 6-4, 6-0, then recovered to set down Catie Faust of Council Bluffs St. Albert, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the consolation bracket. In the end, Olson was eliminated in the consolation quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-5 loss to Atlantic’s Elizabeth Metheny.