It didn’t take long for coach Steve Smith to turn the Ankeny girls’ tennis program around.
The eighth-ranked Hawkettes clinched the CIML Iowa Conference title on Tuesday with a 9-2 victory at Ames. They finished 6-0 in the league and improved to 7-2 overall.
“It’s crazy how well this season is going,” said Smith. “This was supposed to be next year’s goal.”
Ankeny won five of the six singles matches and four of the five doubles matches. The Little Cyclones dropped to 2-1 in the conference and 3-3 overall.
Anna Schmitz posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over Katie Gu at No. 2 singles, then teamed up with Tori Johnson for a 6-1, 6-1 triumph at No. 2 doubles.
“The top of the lineup played great, which should help in our seeding arguments given Ames is the host and one of the best teams in our regional next Wednesday,” Smith said. “Anna beat Katie, who had been playing No. 1 for Ames most of the year, in straight sets. And then Anna and Tori played amazing together again. Their games are so complementary that you can just see the synergistic benefits of playing together, and that’s been the case ever since they started playing together at the Roosevelt meet.”
Four of the Hawkettes’ victories came via a third-set super-tiebreaker.
“On the one hand, I’m really proud of how we competed in those tiebreakers, winning all but one of them,” Smith said. “On the other hand, I’d like to see us be dialed in for the entire match so we don’t have to play tiebreakers going forward.”
The Hawkettes will host the Ankeny Quadrangular against Marshalltown, Norwalk and Southeast Polk on Friday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
Ankeny 9, Ames 2
Singles–Smith beat Chen, 6-0, 6-1; A. Schmitz beat Gu, 6-4, 6-2; Johnson beat Cordoba, 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (5); Otto beat Que, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 1-0 (5); Li (Am) beat Blume, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (9); S. Schmitz beat Berg, 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles–Smith-S. Schmitz beat Chen-Gu, 6-3, 6-1; A. Schmitz-Johnson beat Cordoba-Que, 6-1, 6-1; Otto-Blume beat Li-Berg, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 1-0 (2); Osburn-Francel beat Campbell-Mamakos, 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (4); Anderson-Chopskie (Am) beat Byrnes-Laib, 6-2, 7-5.