Back in February, the Ankeny girls’ basketball team recorded its first-ever victory over its crosstown rival.n
Now, the Ankeny girls’ tennis squad has made some history as well.
The ninth-ranked Hawkettes defeated Ankeny Centennial, 10-1, in a dual meet on Thursday at the Prairie Ridge courts. They had lost all seven previous matchups against the Jaguars.
“It was especially sweet to get our seniors a victory against the Jags in their last opportunity to do so,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith. “It was fitting that Tori (Johnson) won her singles match 6-0, 6-0, and Anna (Schmitz) was the one that clinched the meet with her singles victory.”
Ankeny improved to 3-0 in the CIML Iowa Conference and 3-1 overall. The Jaguars’ records dropped to 1-2 and 2-3.
Centennial had posted shutouts in the last three meetings in the series. Alli Gustafson played for the Jaguars in 2018-19 and is now the team’s coach.
“I give coach Gustafson and the Jags a lot of credit. They are great competitors. There were a lot of close sets,” Smith said. “That being said, something you pointed out in the Ankeny Fanatic Podcast really stuck with me, and it was the focus of our pre-match speech.
“We’ll just say we were happy to win twice as many matches in this meet as we had in our entire past history against the Jags,” he added.
Ankeny swept the six singles matches, but needed a third-set super-tiebreaker to win three of them. Freshman Kira Smith posted a 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (6) victory over Esther Guan at the No. 1 position.
Schmitz at the No. 2 spot and Payton Blume at No. 5 also won in three sets.
“It feels great to be part of the team that made history,” Kira said. “Coming into the meet, I thought we had a pretty good chance, but it’s always tough to play your crosstown rival.”
Centennial’s lone win came at No. 5 doubles, where Gabby Mixdorf and Mayci Rasmus teamed up for a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Emily Byrnes and Sophie Laib.
“It’s always fun to play during the Pink Out meet!” Gustafson said. “I am happy with how the girls battled, especially since only one of my girls has played any varsity tennis before this season. We had three super-tiebreakers that unfortunately didn’t fall our way. Mayci and Gabby played aggressive at the net, and it helped give us our win at No. 5 doubles!
“Ankeny is a great team, and we wish them the best the rest of the season,” she added.
The Hawkettes will play at No. 5 Johnston on Monday. Centennial will travel to Des Moines Hoover on Monday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday:
Ankeny 10, Centennial 1
Singles–Smith beat Guan, 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (6); A. Schmitz beat Benkufsky, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 1-0 (3); Johnson beat Sterling, 6-0, 6-0; Otto beat Price, 6-2, 6-0; Blume beat Lofgren, 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (6); S. Schmitz beat DenBeste, 6-2, 6-3.
Doubles–Smith-S. Schmitz beat Guan-Benkufsky, 6-3, 6-1; A. Schmitz-Otto beat Sterling-DenBeste, 6-2, 6-0; Johnson-Osburn beat Price-Lofgren, 7-5, 6-1; Blume-Francel beat Rouse-Brosnahan, 6-0, 6-3; Mixdorf-Rasmus (AC) beat Byrnes-Laib, 6-4, 7-5.
