Monday’s 8-3 loss to visiting Waukee was a lot closer than the score indicated for the Ankeny Centennial boys’ tennis team.
The Warriors simply won all of the close matches–and that proved to be the difference.
“We went 0-4 in third-set supertiebreakers tonight, which hurts,” said Centennial assistant coach Dustin Rhoads. “If we win those, we win the dual. It sucks to lose those, but Waukee was the better team tonight in the big moments and kept the ball in the court better in the very windy conditions.”
Centennial’s only victory in singles came at the No. 2 spot, where Nick Hiney posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over Yatharth Sirohi.
“This is a matchup that we were excited for as we knew there would be a lot of close matches, and Hiney had a big win for us!” Rhoads said. “But again, we were a little slow out of the gates in singles and fell down 5-1 after singles. Quinn Monson for Waukee is the best player in the state along with Kaden Taylor (of Waukee Northwest), so we knew No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles would be very tough.”
The Jaguars got a win from the No. 2 doubles team of Holden Smith and Andrew Law. The No. 5 duo of Zack Malone and Carson Wellendorf also prevailed, but it wasn’t enough.
“We were right there again in most of the matches and battled back in doubles, which is more of our team’s strength,” Rhoads said. “But Waukee was smart and very tough under pressure, and they are well-coached. Head coach Kevin Bauman is one of my best friends–he’s a great coach and someone I look up to, so it was fun for us. Congrats to them on the win.”
The Warriors improved to 3-1 in the CIML Conference and 4-1 overall. Centennial’s records dropped to 1-2 and 1-3.
The Jaguars will travel to Johnston on Tuesday for another conference meet against the Dragons, who are 1-3 in the league.
“This meet should give us confidence going into Johnston as they are a great team also,” Rhoads said. “We know we can compete hard, and one of these days we are going to put it all together and come away with a big team win! We are close, and hopefully it is against Johnston!”
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday’s meet:
Waukee 8, Centennial 3
Singles–Monson beat B. Wellendorf, 6-3, 6-0; Hiney (AC) beat Sirohi, 6-3, 6-3; Bajwa beat Smith, 6-4, 6-0; Abbott beat Law, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 1-0 (5); McPike beat Valerio-Garsow, 6-0, 6-3; Crenshaw beat Halverson, 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (8).
Doubles–Monson-Abbott beat B. Wellendorf-Hiney, 6-2, 6-2; Smith-Law (AC) beat Sirohi-Bajwa, 6-4, 6-1; McPike-Garimella beat Valerio-Garsow-Halverson, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (4); Crenshaw-T. Nguyen beat Walker-Sanders, 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (1); Malone-C. Wellendorf (AC) beat R. Nguyen-Thole, 6-4, 6-4.
