The Ankeny Centennial and Fort Dodge boys’ tennis teams had a common opponent on Monday.
The rain.
In an effort to beat an incoming storm, the Jaguars and Dodgers played a dual meet consisting of eight-game pro sets instead of the usual best-of-three sets format.
In the end, Centennial emerged with a 6-2 road victory. Three of the doubles matches could not be contested due to the rain.
“We only got in the 1-6 singles and 4 doubles,” said Centennial coach Tami Lewton. “They also defaulted 5 doubles.”
The Jaguars won four of the six singles matches. Caleb Peterson posted a victory at the No. 1 spot, and so did Holden Smith at No. 3, Brayden Wellendorf at No. 4 and Joel Nelson at No. 6.
Kellen Jones at No. 2 and Nathan Smith at No. 5 each lost a tiebreaker after battling their opponent to a 7-7 tie.
“They were both good matches,” Lewton said. “I really think if it was the normal two-out-of-three sets they would have won. It is tricky to play a new format.”
Nick Hiney and Jack Lacey teamed up for a win at No. 4 doubles.
The Jaguars improved to 2-3 in the CIML Iowa Conference and 5-6 overall. Fort Dodge’s records dropped to 0-5 and 1-7.
Centennial will travel to seventh-ranked Mason City on Tuesday for another Iowa Conference dual meet.
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday’s meet:
Centennial 6, Fort Dodge 2
Singles–Peterson beat Flaherty, 8-1; Vaughan (FD) beat Jones, 8-7; H. Smith beat Beekman, 8-4; Wellendorf beat Hays, 8-0; Porter (FD) beat N. Smith, 8-7; Nelson beat Utley, 8-3.
Doubles–Hiney-Lacey beat Balkenende-Weirtz, 8-4; Jaguars won by default.