March 28, 2024

Clarke boys finish 11-1

ATLANTIC — The Clarke boys tennis team reached the substate final here on Saturday, but fell 5-1 to a strong Boone team in the finals, leaving the Indians one step short of the state tournament.

"We were playing for a trip to state," head coach Jeff Ehrhardt said. "We finished as one of the top eight teams in the state."

The Indians started the day with a 5-3 win over Shenandoah in the substate semifinals.

Clarke held a 4-2 lead after singles play thanks to wins from Jared Jamison, Jacob Redman, Ali Aly and Holden Hewitt.

The Indians needed just one doubles win to clinch the victory, and they got it when the team of Yahia Aly and Redman won 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 over the Shenandoah team of Phillip Meier and Alex Goodell.

That put the Indians in a matchup with top-seeded Boone in the substate finals.

Senior Colin Morris picked up Clarke's lone win of the match at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-0 over Eddie Smith.

Yahia Aly was the only other Clarke player to win a set, as Boone had wrapped up the victory in singles play.

The Indians finish their season with an 11-1 record.

The doubles team of Morris and Jamison competes at the Boys State Tennis Meet in Waterloo this weekend. They enter the tournament with a record of 22-1 for the season.

Girls

Meanwhile, the girls tennis team finished its season at the regional individual meet in Boone on May 22.

Top-seeded singles player Libby Bemis fell in the semifinals to Ballard's Emily Jurgensen, 6-3, 6-3, ending her bid for a trip to state. Bemis went on to finish third with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Kuemper Catholic's Mattie Potthoff.

The second-seeded doubles team of Tracy Morgan and Cassidy Bierbrodt also saw its hopes of a state berth derailed, as it lost to the Creston team of Alli Thomsen and Angela Sorensen in the quarterfinals, 2-6, 7-5, 4-6.

Bemis finishes her career as the all-time wins leader in Clarke history.

She ends her career with a record of 114 wins and 16 losses. She was 50-5 in her career in singles play and 64-11 in doubles play.

Bemis passed Kylar McCann (108 wins) and Kelli Ehrhardt (106 wins) during the season.