The Ankeny girls’ tennis team earned a moral victory on Thursday.
The Hawkettes saw some positive signs during an 11-0 loss to visiting Dowling Catholic at the Prairie Ridge courts. The Maroons are ranked No. 1 in Class 2A.
“It sounds weird given the meet score, but I thought we played well tonight, especially in doubles,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith. “I actually thought we competed pretty well against the best singles lineup in the state, and in doubles I thought we brought our game up another notch. Liv (North) and Lilith (Francel) were actually up 2-0 against the doubles team probably favored to win the state title this year.”
Ankeny’s No. 4 doubles team of Paige Ford and Miranda Geest played the most competitive match of the day, winning seven games before dropping a 6-3, 6-4 decision.
“Paige and Miranda are really turning into a great doubles team,” Smith said.
The Maroons improved to 4-0 in the CIML Conference and 7-0 overall. Ankeny’s records dropped to 0-3 and 0-4.
Here are the match-by-match results:
Dowling Catholic 11, Ankeny 0
Singles–Petersen beat Schmitz, 6-0, 6-0; Frye beat Francel, 6-0, 6-1; Mauro beat De Haan, 6-1, 6-1; Edward beat North, 6-2, 6-1; Bakros beat Feldhacker, 6-0, 6-0; Johnson beat Gorrela, 6-0, 6-3.
Doubles–Frye-Mauro beat Francel-North, 6-2, 6-0; Edward-Bakros beat Feldhacker-Gorrela, 6-1, 6-0; Johnson-Blume beat Quirk-Skinner, 6-2, 6-0; Murphy-Piekron beat Ford-Geest, 6-3, 6-4; Frost-Carfrae beat Rubin-Hanley, 6-1, 6-1.