The Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team picked up its first win under new coach Alli Gustafson on Monday.
The Jaguars posted a 7-4 victory at Marshalltown on a cold and windy afternoon. They improved to 1-1 in the CIML Iowa Conference and 1-2 overall, while the Bobcats’ records dropped to 0-1 and 0-3.
“When the meet started, the temperature was 32 degrees with strong winds,” Gustafson said. “Needless to say, it was cold! But I am so proud of the girls for battling in the harsh conditions. We had so many super-tiebreakers, and some fell our way!”
Centennial won four of the six singles matches and three of the five doubles matches. Esther Guan, Jenna Benkufsky, Ara Lofgren and Morgan DenBeste each won a pair of matches on the day.
“Jenna and Morgan had some great comebacks during singles,” Gustafson said. “They never gave up and continued to look at how to win the next point. It was awesome how they both could take a close match and finish it. It was exciting to get our first win of the season.”
The Jaguars will host a non-conference meet against Des Moines Roosevelt (2-0) on Tuesday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday:
Centennial 7, Marshalltown 4
Singles–Guan (AC) beat Smith, 6-4, 6-1; Benkufsky (AC) beat Downs, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7); Feldman (M) beat Sterling, 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (7); Ferfecka (M) beat Price, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (9); Lofgren (AC) beat Hargrave, 6-1, 6-4; Den Beste (AC) beat Diggins, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (9).
Doubles–Guan-Benkufsky (AC) beat Smith-Downs, 6-0, 6-3; Sterling-DenBeste (AC) beat Feldman-Ferfecka, 6-4, 6-2; Price-Lofgren (AC) beat Hargrave-Manen Mur, 7-5, 6-2; Diggins-Lucas (M) beat Rouse-Brosnahan, 6-2, 6-2; Bohan-Jones (M) beat Mixdorf-Rasmus, 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (7).