Wolverines spoil Comet netters home-opener

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Going into this girls tennis season, Charles City head coach Brian Parrott was particularly high on the upside prospects of freshman Sofia Alinea.

During the Comets’ home-opener against Dike-New Hartford Thursday at Sportsmen’s Park, you saw the reason for such optimism.

With the Wolverines already seizing two out of three doubles matches, Charles City needed a win to keep things interesting. And the Comets got one in the No. 2 doubles match when Alinea served up a pair of hot-mustard aces to cap her and teammate Jada Litterer’s 8-5 pro-set win over DNH senior Claire McCumber and junior Indee Grassley.

By the time Alinea returned to the court for her No. 2 singles match against junior Izzy Norton, the Wolverines had already clinched the dual meet. Norton took a 5-3 lead before Alinea, using her hard serve and solid baseline game, tied the match at 5.

Norton was able to regain control in winning the next three games for the 8-5 pro-set win as the Wolverines won the meet 7-2.

Charles City’s other win came at No. 6 singles when Alexis Eaves outlasted Abrielle Pokorny for an extended 9-7 victory.

Wolverine junior Aidalyn Tott defeated Comet senior Rylee DeBoest 8-1 at No. 1 singles; McCumber shutout Comet senior Hannah Hoffman 8-0 at No. 3 singles; Addy Joslin defeated Litterer 8-1 at No. 4 singles; Grassley defeated junior Marissa Avelar 8-0 at No. 5 singles; Tott and Norton defeated DeBoest and Hoffman at No. 1 doubles; and Joslin and Pokorny stopped Avelar and Eaves 8-2 to round out the other DNH match wins.

After a 9-0 win over Hampton-Dumont to start the season last Thursday, the Comets are now 1-1.

Next week, Charles City will travel to Mason City on Monday before hosting Decorah on Tuesday — the Vikings eliminated the Comets from the postseason in the regional semifinals last spring.