Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The individual state tennis tournament experience for Julianna and Caroline Mascardo closed with consecutive losses.

Fortunately for the West High doubles tandem the wait to return to the court will be a short one.

The Mascardo sisters continued a strong run of state meet doubles success for West High with a fourth-place finish at the Class 2A state meet on Thursday at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center in Iowa City.

Now the sisters will turn their attention to adding on to another West High string of success at the state team tournament on Saturday in Johnston.

“Everyone is really looking forward to team state, it’s something that we’ve been working toward the entire season,” Caroline Mascardo said. “Julianna get to play together again in addition to singles and it will be great for everyone on the team to be playing again instead of the just the people that were at individual state.”

On Thursday the Mascardo sisters gave West High a top-four doubles finish for the fourth consecutive season.

After winning back-to-back straight set matches on Wednesday to reach the semifinals the West High tandem fell to second-seeded Mira Keeran and Maya Mallavarapu of Cedar Falls 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 in the semifinals.

The Mascardo sisters then lost to Cedar Rapids Washington duo of Kathryn Zulstra and Katelynn Kock in the third-place match by a score of 6-2, 6-1.

“As long as we are playing well that is our main priority not really so much outcome focused,” Caroline Mascardo said. “We are focused on how we can improve in our next match. Moving on we just want to try to play our best.”

The losses were the first of the season for the West High doubles team which dropped to 11-2 on the year.

“I think they are getting a better understanding of the game and they just have a good flow of the movement of the doubles points and where to put the ball,” West High coach Amie Villarini said. “They have really good control and they understand it’s minimizing errors and sticking to the basics and they do that really, really well.”

The Mascardos and West High will get a chance to play their best and end the season on a high note on Saturday at the 2A team tournament.

West High will face Cedar Falls in a 2A semifinal at 8:30 a.m. with the championship match to follow.

West Des Moines Valley and West Des Moines Dowling meet in the other semifinals.

“All four teams are potential state champion teams, it’s going to be a real battle in the semifinals I don’t think it’s clear cut who is going to win either of those matches. It’s going to be a battle all the way around.”

West High defeated Cedar Falls 7-2 in the season-opener for both teams.

The rematch comes at a perfect time for West High which has been gearing up for team state all season.

“The playing part is fun but the team atmosphere of cheering on your teammates and being cheered on is what makes tennis so special,” Julianna Mascardo said. “Having that support the whole time is really important and it’s really helpfully when you get into these tight matches.”

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