Fleming wins 3rd state singles title

IOWA CITY — Gabi Fleming is a champion for all seasons.

The Cedar Rapids Xavier junior girls’ tennis standout — just five months removed from winning her second state singles championship in a row — had the uniquely swift opportunity to claim a third thanks to the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union shifting the girls’ tennis season from a spring sport to the autumn.

No matter. Fleming was her customary dominant self.

“I still got to play my tournaments over the summer and work hard over the summer,” Fleming said after overwhelming Waterloo Columbus’ Kate Holton, 6-1, 6-1 for the Class 1A state singles championship Thursday at Hawkeye Tennis and Recreational Complex. “So I don’t really think it was too much of a difference.”

There also was not much difference between Thursday’s triumph and the crown she claimed May 31 in Waterloo. Both came at the expense of Holton, and both were resounding wins for Fleming.

“Knowing her game helps a lot,” Fleming said. “Hitting it to her backhand is obviously the play, but knowing her game style and what I need to do to win is really helpful.”

Fleming becomes the ninth girls’ tennis player in state history to win three state singles championships. Only two of them — Karen Moser of Waterloo West (1958-61) and Urbandale’s Megan Racette (1999-2002) — added a fourth crown.

Fleming can join that exclusive group next season.

“That is probably my number one goal,” Fleming said. “It would be really awesome to win four. … Only two people have done it. I would love to be the third.”

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Fleming’s Xavier teammates — juniors Tia Halabi and Gemma Younadam — won the state doubles title by outlasting top-seeded tandem Grace Huinker and Olivia Huinker from Decorah, 6-3, 6-3.

“At practice, we always give it our all,” Younadam said. “Whether we lose in a practice game or if we win, we just leave it all out on the court. No matter if it is an actual meet game, state or just practice.”

This is the third time in five years Xavier has won the state championship in both singles and doubles in the same season. Over the past seven seasons, Xavier has now won state doubles five times with four different twosomes.

“It was such a fun moment when we won,” Halabi said. “But also, there was so much backstory to it because we wanted to get another ‘triple crown’ again. That was on the line. I am happy we did it.”

Xavier can earn that coveted “triple crown” — singles, doubles and team state — in back-to-back seasons when the team tournament is staged Monday and Tuesday at Pella.

“We just have to remember who we are,” Xavier Coach Matt Foxhoven said. “What tennis we play. We always talk about that. Hitting our good ball, don’t get caught up in what other people do. We play our game and trust what we have done. So we’re going to keep doing that.”

In 1A singles consolation play, Xavier’s Lulu Rozeboom placed fourth and Kaitlyn Bjork of Decorah was sixth.

At the 2A tournament at Byrnes Park in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids Washington’s Lilly Belle Barker and Samantha Becker finished third in doubles, while Lily Holland of Cedar Rapids Jefferson closed her prep career as a four-time state placewinner by earning fifth in singles, two spots ahead of Iowa City Liberty’s Vivian Kahler.