The Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team won three come-from-behind matches and defeated host Johnston, 8-3, in a CIML Conference dual meet on Tuesday.
The third-ranked Jaguars improved their records to 4-1 in the league and 5-1 overall. No. 10 Johnston dropped to 3-3 in the conference.
“Today was another great win for the team,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson.
Centennial built a 5-1 lead in singles play. Jenna Benkufsky rallied from a one-set deficit to win at the No. 3 spot.
The No. 4 doubles team of Rozzie Sterling and Gabby Mixdorf won their match in similar fashion, and so did the No. 5 duo of Madison Price and Mayci Rasmus.
“I was proud of Jenna for coming back after an 0-6 deficit in the first set to win her match,” Gustafson said. “She was able to utilize the fresh start of a new set to collect herself and start back strong in the second. Rozzie and Gabby, as well as Madison and Mayci, also had super-tiebreakers and came out on top. Both doubles teams were able to utilize consistency and doubles strategies to take it point by point and win the match.”
The Jaguars will play another conference meet against Ankeny on Thursday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
Centennial 8, Johnston 3
Singles–A. Peterson beat Christensen, 6-0, 6-0; Guan beat Gano, 6-2, 6-2; Benkufsky beat Hendrickson, 0-6, 6-3, 10-5; Sa. Peterson beat Si. Peterson, 6-1, 6-3; Paltrinieri (J) beat Lofgren, 6-1, 6-2; Yuan beat Curry, 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles–A. Peterson-Guan beat Christensen-Gano, 6-0, 6-0; Hendrickson-Paltrinieri (J) beat Benkufsky-Lofgren, 6-2, 6-4; Si. Peterson-Monson (J) beat Sa. Peterson-Yuan, 6-1, 7-5; Sterling-Mixdorf beat Curry-Jensen, 6-7, 6-2, 10-6; Price-Rasmus beat Ross Cope-Kiekhaefer, 2-6, 6-4, 10-6.