In a matchup of two squads that reached the semifinals of the Class 2A state team tournament last season, the Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team edged visiting Valley, 6-5, in a CIML Conference meet on Friday.
The Jaguars won four of the five doubles matches to improve to 2-1 in the conference and overall. Valley’s records dropped to 1-2 and 2-3.
“I was proud of our entire lineup,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson. “Everyone had a part of the win, and I am so proud of everyone for stepping up! We had several tiebreaks in the matches. Jenna (Benkufsky) had a super tiebreak, where she had to finish the match after losing the second set. She showed determination, composure and grit throughout the super tiebreak.”
Centennial also got a huge win from the No. 5 doubles team of Kalyani Bhat and Grace Mortale.
“Those two pulled off a super tiebreak too!” Gustafson said. “They came back strong in the second set to take the match to a super tiebreak. Every point mattered, and they stuck with it to the end. They used their serves and returns to make each point count.”
A year ago, the Jaguars advanced to the Class 2A semifinals before dropping a 5-3 decision to Dowling Catholic, while Valley lost to eventual champion Cedar Rapids Washington. The Tigers then posted a 5-2 victory over Centennial in the third-place match.
The Jaguars will host a non-conference meet against North Polk (3-1) on Monday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Friday’s meet:
Centennial 6, Valley 5
Singles–Tannenbaum (V) beat S. Peterson, 6-4, 6-0; Yuan (AC) beat Shapiro, 6-1, 6-4; Bird (V) beat Baca, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (5); Benkufsky (AC) beat Kenney, 1-6, 6-2, 1-0 (5); Reuter (V) beat Lofgren, 7-6 (3), 6-1; Lepe (V) beat Mixdorf, 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles–S. Peterson-Yuan (AC) beat Tannenbaum-Shapiro, 6-4, 7-6 (3); Bird-Reuter (V) beat Baca-Benkufsky, 6-2, 6-2; Lofgren-Mixdorf (AC) beat Keeney-Lepe, 6-1, 6-1; Faidley-Rasmus (AC) beat Carter-Dalton, 6-3, 7-6 (2); Bhat-Mortale (AC) beat Johnson-Polson, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8).