Prep tennis: Lady Dees net season-opening sweep

ALBIA — It didn’t take long for Albia to benefit from a new statewide rule.

The very first day of the very first season of the brand new school year saw the Lady Dee girls tennis team make a little bit of history on Thursday. Eve Harlan made her varsity debut a year earlier than expected, becoming the school’s first eighth-grade student athlete to participate in a high school varsity sport other than baseball or softball.

Harlan made the most of her sooner-than-expected varsity debut, winning 8-1 over Burlington-Notre Dame sophomore Alen Franklin in the No. 6 singles match before teaming up with senior teammate Maggie McAninch for an 8-2 win over Franklin and Faith Gibb in the No. 3 doubles match. The two wins were part of Albia’s season-opening 9-0 sweep of the visiting Nikes in one of five duals and seven competitions across the state to open the girls high school tennis season.

“It was fun. It was exciting,” Harlan said. “I liked playing with Maggie. She was a nice partner. All the girls have been really nice.”

Harlan became one of the first eighth-graders across the state to participate in any varsity high school sport during any season other than the summer following the Iowa State Board of Education’s approval to implement legislative guidance HF2591. The bill, signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds on June 2, allows eighth-grade students to participate in all high school athletics.

Less than a week after officially going into effect, the Albia girls tennis team were happy to welcome a brand new teammate into the fold.

“I love having younger players on the team,” Albia sophomore Amelia Seddon said. “I think it’s great when younger players get out and start early. They have longer time to keep playing.”

Molly McAninch teamed up with Seddon to earn an 8-3 win in the top doubles match over Paige Kramer and Jessee Pearson. McAninch’s older sister, Maggie, became Albia’s first senior athlete to team up with an eighth-grader in a high school tennis match.

“It’s funny how a senior is playing with an eighth-grader, but I think it’s pretty cool,” Molly McAninch said. “It’s kind of like having another little sister for her.

Seddon opened the season with an 8-4 win in the top singles match over Kramer, setting the tone for Albia’s season-opening sweep. The Lady Dees won 72 of 94 games played against the Nikes as Savannah Wallace, in her first week as head coach of the Albia girls tennis team, put together a winning line-up less than a week after the team’s first practice.

“It was a little challenging. We had open nets this summer, but it was kind of hit-or miss,” Wallace said. “We actually started to have our challenge matches to officially determine our seeding. Unfortunately, it rained on Wednesday and we couldn’t play. I had to just pick where they were in the line-up and did the best I could.

“Overall, it was a good meet. It was an early morning for some, but I think most of the girls had fun and picked right back up where we left off.”

Molly McAninch added an 8-3 win over Pearson in the No. 2 singles match while Maggie McAninch took an 8-4 decision in the No. 5 singles match over Gibb. Alexis Rominger and Koltin Wynn finished off the sweep with an 8-4 win over Meredith Wilson and Lilana Anderson in the No. 2 doubles match after Rominger won 8-2 over Wilson in the No. 3 singles match while Wynn edged Anderson, 8-6, in No. 4 singles action.

“Tennis is meant to be fun. We all want to be competitive and we all want to win, but we also want to have fun. We want to come out and just be a team,” Wallace said. “Being welcoming and allowing everyone to join makes it a fun gang to be together with.”