Comet seniors honored at lone home tennis meet

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Good thing Sarah Barry and Julia Page are close friends, otherwise there might be a problem.

Two women wearing the same outfit to the same event has the potential for conflict. But for the Charles City seniors, matching sets is the way they approached every match.

“I guess that’s the thing I’ll remember the most,” Page said of her closing career with the Comet girls tennis team. “Always matching my outfits with Sarah.

“Every since we became doubles partners, that’s what we did. We have about five different outfits. I don’t really know which one works best for us.”

Incidentally, Page plans to attend Iowa State next fall where she will study fashion merchandising.

Barry will attend Simpson College to study elementary education.

Neither plans to play tennis in college.

“It’s bittersweet,” Barry said of the approaching end of her athletic career — she also played varsity basketball for the Comets.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet that it’s going to be over in a couple of weeks.”

For much of the year, Page has been the Comets’ No. 1 singles player and the duo of Barry and Page have been the team’s No. 1 doubles team. Both have been playing tennis for Charles City since their freshman year.

On Tuesday, the Charles City team honored its seniors. It came after a meet with Clear Lake at Sportsmen’s Park — the Comets’ lone home meet of the season.

“Playing on the road all the time was tough,” Barry said, “but sometimes it was nice to be let out of school early to make the trips.”

Charles City coach Brian Parrott, who is hoping that at least two more courts can be added to Sportsmen’s to make it more accommodating for home meets in seasons to come, said he was happy for the turnout.

“We got about 75 … maybe even more than that out here to watch us play,” Parrott said. “That’s more than we usually see at our road meets.”

Wins have been hard to come by for Charles City’s varsity squad, which defeated Hampton-Dumont on Monday for its first victory of the season. But the Comet junior varsity squad has posted a winning record thanks in part to seniors Zabrina Bill, Paige Gray, Rachel Sullivan and Megan Vance, who were also honored Tuesday.

“I started playing when I was a freshman, but didn’t go out last year,” said Vance, who will study at LaJames College in Mason City for a career in cosmetology and hairstyling.

“I came back because I liked it and missed playing.”