River Queens take fourth place at their toughest invitational this season

Apr. 22—CLINTON — It was a cold Saturday of tennis as the Clinton River Queens hosted their invitational, welcoming some of the toughest competition across the state.

Pleasant Valley ran away with first place, tallying 29.5 total points, followed by Johnston in second with 20. Rounding out the top six was North Scott in third with 12 points, Clinton in fourth with 10.5, Decorah in fifth with 9.5 and tying for sixth was both Camanche and Columbus Catholic with 8.5.

Starting with doubles, Sescie Haan and Maddie Rowden came in as the one seed and they took care of business against both Decorah and Columbus.

However, they fell in the championship 5-8 to Pleasant Valley to take second place and earn the Queens only placement in doubles play.

After a second round loss in number one singles, Haan was able to bounce back and take third to give Clinton more points. Rowden also made the third place match in number two singles but dropped it to take fourth.

Elizabeth Grinnall battled back in number three singles, defeating Columbus's Sawyer Schaefer 9-7 for another third place finish. Katie Atkinson also got third in singles, defeating Johnston's Harper Ross Cope in number four singles.

"We are proud of our players that stepped up and showed grit," Head coach Cindy Rasche said.

Finally for Clinton, Lou Gonzalez was able to finish in fourth in number five singles to cap off a nice day for the Queens.

"We have a young squad and the matches today provided a great number of learning opportunities," Rasche said. "We are eager to see how our team responds in the coming weeks."

Clinton will host Pleasant Valley in a match between undefeated teams on Tuesday evening at 4 p.m.