Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – From the moment West High secured a 5-4 win over Linn-Mar in a Mississippi Valley Conference regular season match last month both teams have been thinking about a possible second meeting.

The almost inevitable rematch that the top two tennis programs in Class 2A have been waiting for is just a couple of wins away for each.

Top-ranked West High and No. 2 Linn-Mar enter the semifinals of the 2A team tennis tournament on Tuesday at Prairie Ridge Sports Complex heavy favorites to meet in the title match for the four time in five seasons.

“It’s becoming a bit of a rivalry, they are obviously a great team and they have had a great program the past four or five years and we have too,” West High junior Jack Wenzel said. “It’s just fun to play against them and that’s what is making it become a good rivalry.”

The title history between the two teams goes back to 2014 when West High claimed its third consecutive 2A crown with a hotly contested 5-2 win over Linn-Mar.

A year later Linn-Mar got a measure of revenge, claiming its first team title since 1988 with a 5-2 win over the Trojans.

Since that loss to the Lions in the 2015 title match West High has rattled off four consecutive wins over Linn-Mar while winning back-to-back 2A state titles.

The Trojans won their fifth title in six years with a 5-1 win over Linn-Mar in the 2A title match a year ago.

“They are a good program so I’m not surprised that we play all the time,” West High coach Mitch Gross said. “Championships are supposed to crown the best and usually it works out that way.”

Linn-Mar (17-1) entered this season top-ranked and with its lineup returning intact from a runner-up finish last season.

The lone slip up for the Lions this season was a 5-4 home loss to West High on April 24 that vaulted the Trojans into the top spot in the rankings.

“They didn’t lose anybody from last year and we lost half our team and yet we were able to get by them in the dual season in a very close meet,” Gross said. “There is no doubt we are going to have our hands full.”

West High (17-0) got singles wins from Wenzel, Eli Young, Brad DiLeo and Mukundan Kasturirangan to take a 4-2 lead and then pulled out the win when DiLeo and Young won a thriller 6-4, 7-5 at number three doubles.

“It was obviously super close and we just need to go out and play our best again and hopefully pull it out,” Wenzel said. “We have definitely been in those tight situations before and going through that definitely helps with experience and hopefully that benefits us.”

In order to get a state title rematch both teams must first take care of business in the semifinals.

Linn-Mar takes on West Des Moines Valley (13-1) and West High faces Waukee (10-3) in opening matches at 8:30 a.m.

West High defeated Waukee 10-1 in the season-opener for both teams on March 30.

West High is coming off an individual tournament that saw the Trojans go without a singles or doubles champion for the first time since 2012.

Gross still likes how his team is playing heading into what is always the biggest meet of the year for West High.

“My philosophy as the head coach is this is what the season is all about the individual tournament is gravy,” Gross said. “Obviously we want to win singles and doubles but everything is about the team championship and our guys buy into that philosophy. They are pretty dialed in as a far as what the team championship means to our program.”