INDIANOLA — It was a great day for the Ottumwa girls tennis squad and head coach Dan Staggs on Thursday.

Staggs was pleased to say the least. According to him, it’s been a while since two Ottumwa girls tennis players advanced to state in singles competition in the same season — if ever.

It happened on Thursday at Indianola.

Ottumwa sent seniors Jana Sandova and Jennifer Palmer to the state meet held in Ames in two weeks after singles/doubles Class 2A regional competition.

Sandova and Palmer squared off in the finals of the Class 2A, Region 4 singles finals. Sandova won by default after an exhausted and ill Palmer could not go on after her amazing run to the finals.

In area Regional Class 1A action, Centerville’s doubles team of Heather Buttel and Allison Berner took the Region 8 title held in Fairfield on Thursday. Buttel and Berner defeated Bonnie Carter and Sheila Higgins of Fairfield Maharishi (MSAE) 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the Class 1A state meet, to be help at Luther College in Decorah on May 29-30. Winners and runners-up advance to state.

Fairfield’s Rachele Petit took the singles title at the region, winning by injury default over Katie Schulte of Keokuk.

In the 2A region, Palmer — unseeded — knocked off the No. 2 and No. 3 seed to get the chance to square off against her teammate.

“She wanted to get in this so bad. She was a senior and missed out last year. It didn’t matter, she was going to hang in there. I’m real happy for her. She was so determined,” said Staggs, in his 45th season of coaching Ottumwa tennis.

Palmer topped West Des Moines Valley’s Kim Lane in the quarterfinals in a slugfest. Palmer won the first set 6-4 and encountered an enormous hole to climb out of in the second set, down 5-1. Palmer responded with six-straight winning sets to close out the match 7-5.

Palmer advanced to the finals after topping Oskaloosa’s Laura Tucker 6-2, 6-4. That match was a lot closer than the score indicated according to Staggs.

“In the second set versus Tucker, I don’t know how long it took, but it was a long one. There were points where they hit the ball 30 or 40 times,” said Staggs.

Palmer opened up regional play with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Southeast Polk’s Katie Wilson.

Staggs talked about the decision to not play the finals match after the drained Palmer was too sick to play.

“She didn’t want to default. She came back five minutes after throwing up after her semifinal match and said, ‘I feel so much better now. I want to play’. Ten minutes later she was throwing up again because she was so dehydrated,” said Staggs.