On a day when the Ankeny girls’ tennis team was planning to honor its seniors, Mother Nature refused to cooperate.
The Hawkettes defeated a pair of opponents on Friday in the Ankeny Quadrangular, but their final match against unbeaten Norwalk was cancelled due to rain.
“The weather also forced us to move our senior recognition ceremony indoors at the high school,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith, whose team raised its record to 4-6. “Still, it was great to give our seniors some recognition and extra opportunities on our senior day. Overall, I thought we competed well.”
Ankeny opened the tournament with a 7-4 victory over Marshalltown. The Bobcats dropped to 8-4 on the season.
The Hawkettes then followed with a 9-2 win over Southeast Polk, defeating their CIML Conference rival for the second time in a span of 18 days. The Rams (4-7) also dropped a 9-2 decision to Ankeny on April 18.
“Sophie Rohlfing played great in her first singles match and avenged a loss from our first meet against the Rams in her second singles match,” Smith said. “She then teamed up with Mallory (De Haan) for some really good doubles play against Southeast Polk. I also thought Lilith (Francel) and Madalyn (Kolb) played solid the entire day.”
Norwalk also posted wins over Southeast Polk and Marshalltown. The Warriors improved to 11-0, but the de facto championship match against Ankeny was wiped out by the rain.
The Hawkettes will play a non-conference meet at Des Moines Roosevelt on Monday. They will then compete in a Class 2A regional tournament on Wednesday at Valley.
Here are the match-by-match results from Friday:
Ankeny 7, Marshalltown 4
Singles–Downs (M) beat Otto, 8-4; Osburn beat Feldman, 8-5; Kolb beat Diggins, 8-1; Francel beat Hargrave, 8-4; Lucas (M) beat De Haan, 8-1; Rohlfing beat Bohan, 8-2.
Doubles–Downs-Feldman (M) beat Otto-Kolb, 8-4; Osburn-Francel beat Diggins-Hargrave, 8-6; De Haan-Rohlfing beat Lucas-Bohan, 8-5; Jones-Hughes (M) beat Gorrela-Quirk, 8-4; Risk-Ferree beat Robinson-Uhde, 8-2.
Ankeny 9, S.E. Polk 2
Singles–Smith beat O’Donnell, 8-1; Kolb beat Dao, 8-4; Francel beat Pate, 8-0; De Haan beat Ballard, 8-5; Rohlfing beat Ciesielski, 9-7; Gorrela beat Morris, 8-6.
Doubles–Smith-Otto beat O’Donnell-Dao, 8-2; De Haan-Rohlfing beat Pate-Kenney, 8-4; Kolb-Francel beat Ballard-Backen, 8-4; Ciesielski-Bartels (SEP) beat Gorrela-Feldhacker, 8-5; Morris-Bouchard (SEP) beat Quirk-Risk, 8-6.