An injury to Lauren Osburn proved costly on Wednesday for the Ankeny girls’ tennis team.
Osburn tweaked her back after winning the first set of her No. 3 singles match against visiting Urbandale. The senior went on to lose the match in three sets to Addy Danenhauer, who helped the J-Hawks to a 6-5 victory at the Prairie Ridge courts.
“Unfortunately, (the injury) both cost her the singles match and prevented her from playing doubles,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith, who was forced to adjust his doubles lineup. “I haven’t been able to keep the doubles lineup as planned very often this year, but our 8-14 players are getting a lot of unexpected experience.”
The two teams split the six singles matches. The Hawkettes got wins from Kira Smith at the No. 1 position, Sydney Otto at No. 2 and Mallory De Haan at No. 6.
“The top of our lineup really stepped up and played well,” Smith said. “Both Kira and Sydney dominated their singles matches, and then won in doubles at No. 1 and 2. I feel like Sydney is finally realizing just how good of a tennis player she is.
“Mallory also had another solid singles performance, winning in straight sets,” he added.
The J-Hawks improved to 3-5 in the CIML Conference and 6-5 overall. Ankeny’s record dropped to 2-5 in the league.
The Hawkettes will host another conference meet against fourth-ranked Valley (8-3) on Thursday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Wednesday’s meet:
Urbandale 6, Ankeny 5
Singles–Smith (A) beat Hinkhouse, 6-0, 6-0; Otto (A) beat L. Dykstra, 6-1, 6-1; Danenhauer (U) beat Osburn, 3-6, 6-4, 10-7; Venteicher (U) beat Kolb, 6-3, 6-4; Noah (U) beat Francel, 6-4, 6-4; De Haan (A) beat Heinen, 6-3, 6-4.
Doubles–Smith-Francel (A) beat Hinkhouse-L. Dykstra, 6-1, 6-2; Otto-Kolb (A) beat Danenhauer-Venteicher, 6-1, 6-2; Noah-Boik (U) beat De Haan-Rohlfing, 6-0, 6-3; Heinen-Cannon (U) beat Feldhacker-Gorrela, 7-5, 6-2; Pedersen-Noelle Getz (U) beat Risk-Quirk, 6-1, 6-2.