Cyclone Tennis Falls in Individual Meets; Team Meets Next

Cyclone Tennis Falls in Individual Meets; Team Meets Next -

(5-15-25) - With individual state qualifying over, Cyclone Tennis will now turn their attention to team regional and district competition.

Harlan Community girls competed in regional play in Denison Monday and Naia Ojeda finished in 3rd place in the singles bracket, winning her first two matches before falling in the semifinals to eventual regional champion Kaylie Simons of Kuemper Catholic. She then won 3rd place match over Bishop Heelan Aila Friis, making her the first alternate if the Top-2 finishers cannot compete at the State Tournament.

Harlan Community co-tennis Coach Michael Rueschenberg liked how Ojeda played but felt fatigue was an issue.

“She really had a great day. Played hard,” said Rueschenberg. “Unfortunately for Naia, she spent a lot of time on the court in her first-round matchup, had some tired legs.”

The Cyclone’s Julia Pando won her opening match but fell in the 2nd round to Friis. Harlan Community girls’ tennis will compete in opening round of regional team competition at Denison-Schleswig on Friday.

Harlan Community girls’ tennis will now prepare for team regional play. Rueschenberg is anxious for his team’s rematch against Denison-Schleswig.

"This is going to be a rematch of our regular season dual. So for this team regional, it will be the first team to five points to win the dual. So, we are really hoping that we can get off to a quick start against Denison."

The Cyclone girls’ return to Denison to take on the Monarchs in 1A – Region 2 play this afternoon.

The Harlan Community boys’ were competed in their individual district meet at Boone Wednesday, where the Cyclone doubles team of Jeb Sonderman and Abram Wilwerding earned a straight-set victory in the opening round over St. Edmond’s Caleb Mosier and Dylan Brokaw, 6-0, 6-0. Rueschenberg says the two were teaming up for the first time this season in doubles competition.
“It was good to see them kind of putting some stuff together that we've been working on this season and kind of put it into use here in this meet.”

The Cyclone duo would fall in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Harlan Community others double team of Ramsey Hussing and Dale Scheuring felling in their opening round contest and, in singles action, Caden Herbst had a hard fought battle Nevada’s Noah Johnson, falling 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, and Kobe Klaassen also lost his opening round match to Boone’s Wesley Van Pelt, 6-3, 6-2.

The Harlan Community boys’ tennis team will return to face Boone in substate team match. Rueschenberg thinks a familiarity with the courts could be helpful to his athletes.

“I think it definitely does help with the familiarity of everything. Already being up there on Wednesday and kind of seeing the layout of everything and then even for, you know, for Kobe, he already played someone from Boone. So that's good experience for him as well.”

The Cyclone boys’ tennis team will return to Boone on Saturday for 1A-Substate 2 competition.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats