Top-ranked Cedar Rapids Washington girls embrace state tennis championship expectations

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nina Marquardt knows a thing or two about winning tennis.

During her high school career at Cedar Rapids Xavier, she was a regular state tournament participant, capping it off in 2018 by teaming with Jon Lansing to win the state coed doubles title.

She was an assistant last season at Xavier. When the head coaching job at Cedar Rapids Washington opened up, Marquardt applied.

“We played against them when I was over at Xavier as an assistant coach,” Marquardt said. “I just remember every girl working as hard as they could.”

Many of those players are back and Marquardt is in the position, as a first-year head coach, to have a possible state championship team.

The Warriors are the state's top-ranked Class 2A squad entering regional tournament play, which begins Saturday with quarterfinal round play. Semifinals and finals will be held on Tuesday with state tournament quarterfinal matches set for May 20.

State semifinals and finals matches will be held on May 30.

The Warriors have a bye and won't compete until Tuesday when they host the winner of Saturday's match between Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Dubuque Senior.

“It will be nice to have some practice time before we host the regionals,” Marquardt said. “It gives us time to hone in on some things we really want to work on.”

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Last season, the Warriors finished third, losing to eventual state champion West Des Moines Dowling in the semifinals before downing Cedar Falls, 5-1, in the third-place match.

This season, the roles are reversed and Washington is the team to beat. It helps to have two of the state's best in junior Katelynn Kock and senior Kathryn Zylstra at the top of the lineup. Both are undefeated in singles and haven't lost as a doubles team.

Add the talents of seniors Chloe Palmer and Peyton Caldwell, junior Mya Messenger and freshman Lily Belle Barker and it is easy to see why the Warriors are favored to win the third title in school history.

Zylstra said the Washington players have embraced those expectations.

“I think it is a good thing,” she said. “Everyone is going in pretty confident, not only because of our ranking but also because of the way we have been playing. I think it is going to be a really good thing for us to go in as the No. 1 seed.”

Two other Gazette-area teams also drew first-round byes in Class 2A and will host on Tuesday. No. 5 Iowa City West will meet the Burlington-Muscatine winner on Tuesday while No. 8 Iowa City Liberty gets the Western Dubuque-Dubuque Hempstead winner.

Play for Class 1A teams begins on Saturday, too. No. 2 Xavier opens with a 9 a.m. home match with South Tama and would then meet the Grinnell-Newton winner at 1 p.m.

The Saints, state champions in 2019 and 2021, just missed out on a state title last year, falling 5-4 to Waterloo Columbus in the title match. Coach Matt Foxhoven’s team is in contention with a new group of varsity players except for junior Avery Link.

Seniors Ali Schuchmann and Isabel Barnes, junior Oliva Cobb and sophomore Ruby Smith have watched and learned from those who played before them

“The biggest thing was these girls coming in didn’t want to have any drop off from the last few years,” Foxhoven said.

No. 10 Decorah also will be hosting matches on Saturday. The Vikings meet Hampton-Dumont-CAL at 9 a.m., then play the Osage-Charles City winner at 1 p.m.

Here are all the girls’ tennis regional team brackets for Class 1A and Class 2A.