Oskaloosa’s Dustin Rhoads qualified for the state tennis tournament for the second year in a row as he finished runner-up at a Class 1A district tournament Thursday.

Rhoads lost just one set in his first two matches of action after getting a bye in the opening round. He posted a 6-0, 6-1 win over Cale Swanson of Grinnell in the quarterfinals then blanked Tyler Terlouw of Pella 6-0, 6-0 to reach the finals, thus guaranteeing a spot in the state tournament.

The Oskaloosa sophomore faced Kriss Baglais of South Tama for the third time this season.

The previous two times they have met the victory went to the Trojan foreign exchange student.

This time the outcome was no different as Rhoads won the opening set 6-2, but Baglais came back to win the final two sets 6-2, 6-4 to take the match.

Rhoads is now 15-3 on the season — all three defeats at the hands of Baglais.

“Dustin played solid in his match with Tyler Terlouw then faced Baglais in the district finals,” Oskaloosa coach Tony Witt said. “The pressure was off because Dustin had qualified for state just making the finals.

“We had a game plan for Dustin this time since he lost to this kid twice already. He executed the game plan very well, winning the first set.

“He rolled his ankle, but battled through that to still make a good match. He’s looking to improve at state this year.”

The Idnians’ other singles entry, Andy Stefanik, went down to defeat in the first round as he fell to Brett Braafhart of Pella 6-7 (2-7), 2-6.

“He lost a little confidence in his shots at the wrong time and lost another tough one,” Witt said. “He has improved a lot since the start of the year.”

The Oskaloosa doubles team of Josh Brink and Alex Knoot dropping a pair of tiebreak sets in the first round as against Shane Malone and Chad Ball of Knoxville.

The second Oskaloosa doubles team of Danan Flander and Tim Nuemann advanced to the second round after beating a Pella Christian team in the first round. They lost to the No. 2 seed team o Nick dDeMaria and Josh Russell of Knoxville in the quarterfinals.

“Tim and Danan played a very good first match,” Witt said. “Alex and Josh teammed up for the first time this year and played very well..”