The Ankeny Centennial boys’ tennis team opened its season on Monday with a 7-4 loss at Ames in a CIML Iowa Conference matchup.
The Little Cyclones won four of the six singles matches and three of the five doubles contests.
“We had a lot of guys playing in their first varsity meet ever, and some of our inexperience showed,” said Centennial coach Tami Lewton. “I was pleased with how we played, though. The team really fought hard the whole meet!”
Centennial’s Caleb Peterson rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 1 singles. Brayden Wellendorf posted a 6-3, 7-6 triumph at the No. 4 spot.
Peterson and Wellendorf then teamed up for a 6-0, 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles. The No. 3 doubles team of Nick Hiney and Jack Lacey also won, 6-2, 6-1.
“I was super pleased with Caleb of course, and I thought Brayden as a freshman did a fantastic job,” Lewton said. “Also, our doubles teams did a nice job as well. We just needed some of those points in our tiebreakers to go the other way!”
The Jaguars will play a non-conference meet at Valley (3-0) on Tuesday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday:
Ames 7, Centennial 4
Singles–Peterson (AC) beat Li, 6-0, 6-0; Raju (Am) beat Jones, 6-3, 6-3; Peng (Am) beat H. Smith, 6-4, 6-0; Wellendorf (AC) beat Hanulik, 6-3, 7-6 (6); Sinclair (Am) beat N. Smith, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5); Sarda (Am) beat Hiney, 6-4, 6-1.
Doubles–Li-Peng (Am) beat Jones-Nelson, 6-3, 6-1; Peterson-Wellendorf (AC) beat Raju-Hanulik, 6-0, 6-4; Hiney-Lacey (AC) beat Sinclair-Sarda, 6-2, 6-1; Bernard-Lee (Am) beat H. Smith-N. Smith, 6-2, 4-6, 10-3; Collins-Zmolek (Am) beat Walker-Halverson, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3).