The sixth-ranked Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team bounced back from Tuesday’s loss to No. 1 Dowling Catholic with an 8-3 victory over No. 3 Valley on Thursday at the Prairie Ridge courts.
The Jaguars swept all six singles matches in straight sets to seal the win. They defeated Valley for the first time since 2017.
“The girls all found victories in singles, which was great for everyone’s confidence,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson. “It was nice to go into doubles with the meet already secured.”
Valley played without its top player, defending Class 2A state singles champion Claire Gu. With Gu out of the lineup, teammate Allexis Moen moved up to the No. 1 singles spot and dropped a 6-1, 6-0 decision to Centennial’s Abbie Peterson.
The Jaguars also got singles victories from Esther Guan, Jenna Benkufsky, Samara Peterson, Ara Lofgren and Megan Yuan.
“Ara found her groove at the end of the first set, which helped her dominate the second one,” Gustafson said. “She was able to use her own strengths against her opponent’s weaknesses. Samara was able to dominate as well. She was able to stay consistent with her groundstrokes, using strength and consistency to outlast her opponent.”
Abbie Peterson and Guan then teamed up for a win at No. 1 doubles in straight sets. The No. 3 doubles team of Samara Peterson and Yuan won a three-set match.
“Overall, everyone on the team helped contribute to this great win!” Gustafson said.
Centennial improved to 3-1 in the CIML Conference. The Tigers dropped to 2-1 in the league and 3-1 overall.
Here are the match-by-match results:
Centennial 8, Valley 3
Singles–A. Peterson beat Moen, 6-1, 6-0; Guan beat Hockmuth, 6-0, 6-4; Benkufsky beat Keshwani, 7-6, 7-5; S. Peterson beat Tannenbaum, 6-0, 6-3; Lofgren beat Tomar, 6-4, 6-0; Yuan beat Songer, 6-4, 6-0.
Doubles–A. Peterson-Guan beat Moen-Hockmuth, 6-4, 6-2; Keshwani-Shapiro (V) beat Benkufsky-Lofgren, 6-4, 6-2; S. Peterson-Yuan beat Tannenbaum-Tomar, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9; Songer-Reuter (V) beat Sterling-Price, 6-1, 6-2; Bailey-Johnson (V) beat Brosnahan-Mixdorf, 6-3, 6-4.