Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The official records will say that the Marie Stier and Sasha Postnikov went 1-1 on the final day of the Class 2A state tennis tournament on Saturday.

Even with a semifinal loss Saturday felt like a big win for the West High senior doubles tandem.

Postnikov and Stier bounced back from a semifinal loss to the defending state title team from West Des Moines Dowling to post a third-place finish at the 2A state meet at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex in Iowa City.

“Even the loss (today) didn’t feel like a loss,” Stier said. “Tennis, as much as it’s about playing against your opponents, it’s also playing against yourself and that might be the best tennis we’ve every played together so it didn’t feel like a loss to me.”

Stier and Postnikov won a pair of matches on Friday to advance to Saturday mornings semifinal against the defending state champion tandem from West Des Moines Dowling tandem of Grace Frye and Juju Mauro.

Mauro and Frye outlasted the West High duo 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

The loss didn’t deter Postnikov and Stier in the slightest.

“Honestly there was no disappointment this morning, I didn’t have any negative feelings towards it,” Postnikov said. “We put everything out there, it was a great match. We had everything to be proud.”

The semifinal loss only fueled Postnikov and Stier heading into their consolation final.

“They played really well in the semifinals, that team has been here before, they are returning state champs and I think they really rose to that level and played pretty fearlessly,” West High coach Nina Marquardt said. “As a coach that’s really all I can ask for and they were ready to close it out for third.”

Stier and Postnikov picked up where they left off in the third-place match.

In the final match of their prep career Postnikov and Stier put the finishing touches on an impressive season with a 6-0, 6-0 win over the West Des Moines Dowling team of Payton Blume and Mady Pierron.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better finish,” Postnikov said. “It means everything. It feels surreal, top three in the state, I feel euphoric.”

The consolation win capped a 3-1 state tournament performance for the West High doubles tandem which concluded the season with a 15-3 record as a doubles squad.

15-3 on the season

“We were just really excited to play,” Stier said. “We came into this tournament excited to play, it’s our last matches so we were just really excited to play and I am just so proud of how well we did.”

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