The eighth-ranked Ankeny girls’ tennis team tuned up for postseason play by posting a pair of victories on Friday at the Ankeny Quadrangular.
The Hawkettes rolled to a 10-1 victory over Southeast Polk and also defeated Norwalk, 8-3. They were also supposed to play Marshalltown, but that match was cancelled due to a lack of time and the fact that the two teams had just played each other on April 28.
“We tried to rest some of our players anticipating three dual meets, which got two players their first varsity singles matches,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith, whose team improved to 9-2 on the season. “Seniors Emily Byrnes and Elisabeth Poock finished out their last regular season match with an impressive victory against Norwalk. It was great to see two amazing leaders who have done so much for our program to win in their last match.”
Lilith Francel became the fourth freshman to win a varsity singles match this year by dominating her opponent.
“Lilith really took advantage of the opportunity to play singles today,” Smith said. “That’s a great sign for the future.”
Another freshman, Kira Smith, won both of her matches at the No. 1 singles position. She finished the regular season with just one loss.
“We also had a couple important wins from our doubles teams that should help our seeding arguments (for the regional tournament on Wednesday),” Smith said.
Here are the match-by-match results:
Ankeny 10, S.E. Polk 1
Singles–Smith beat O’Donnell, 8-0; A. Schmitz beat K. Johnson, 8-2; T. Johnson beat Dao, 8-5; Blume beat Gowin, 8-1; S. Schmitz beat Pate, 8-2; Kenney (SP) beat Osburn, 8-5.
Doubles–A. Schmitz-T. Johnson beat O’Donnell-K. Johnson, 8-3; Smith-S. Schmitz beat Dao-Gowin, 8-4; Blume-Otto beat Pate-Kenney, 8-0; Osburn-Francel beat Pingel-Bouchard, 8-3; Byrnes-Laib beat Backen-Berkey, 8-4.
Ankeny 8, Norwalk 3
Singles–Smith beat Dammeier, 8-0; A. Schmitz beat Kallenbach, 8-4; A. Johnson (N) beat T. Johnson, 8-4; O. Johnson (N) beat Otto, 9-7; S. Schmitz beat Haskell, 8-5; Francel beat Aagard, 8-2.
Doubles–A. Schmitz-T. Johnson beat Dammeier-Kallenbach, 8-2; Smith-Osburn beat A. Johnson-O. Johnson, 8-3; Otto-Blume beat Haskell-Aagard, 8-2; Dehmer-Larson (N) beat Francel-Laib, 8-5; Byrnes-Poock beat Livingston-Snow, 8-3.