It was a memorable Senior Day for the Ankeny girls’ tennis team on Friday.
The Hawkettes defeated two of their three opponents in the Ankeny Invitational, highlighted by a 6-5 win over previously unbeaten Marshalltown. The Bobcats are now 13-1 on the season.
“We had some amazing performances,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith, whose team also posted a 9-2 victory over Dallas Center-Grimes and dropped a 7-4 decision to Southeast Polk. “We upset Marshalltown with our senior leader Mallory DeHaan unavailable for singles due to a class requirement. We knew they were a great team, and we just competed at a higher level to pull that victory out.”
Ankeny got an 8-6 win from the No. 1 doubles team of Lilith Francel and Olivia North to seal the triumph over Marshalltown.
“It all came down to the last match, and I give Lilith and Liv a ton of credit,” Smith said. “They were cruising up 5-1 before letting a state caliber team tie it back up. They just refused to lose the last two games.”
North went 5-0 on the day. Francel won four of her five matches.
“Liv was absolutely unstoppable today. She was just a force all day,” Smith said. “Lilith also took it up a notch in her play. Those two were amazing all day, but it was fitting that the biggest story was our seniors on Senior Day.”
Smith used the invitational as a way to get some of his seniors into the lineup. Paige Ford and Miranda Geest were among the seniors who took advantage of the opportunities.
“It was pretty special to see the seniors step up,” Smith said. “I thought all of our seniors had good moments today, but Paige and Miranda really stood out. They played like they didn’t want their careers to end.
“They both did so well in their first singles matches of their careers that I had to juggle the lineup to give them both an additional singles match against DCG. They made the most of those additional opportunities. They raised their games today showing just what they are capable of. Then they crushed it in doubles together.
“It made our senior ceremony even sweeter,” he added.
The Hawkettes are now 3-8 on the season. They will compete in a Class 2A regional singles and doubles tournament on Monday at Norwalk.
Here are the match-by-match results from Friday’s tournament:
Ankeny 6, Marshalltown 5
Singles–Schmitz (A) beat Downs, 8-5; Francel (A) beat Feldman, 8-3; North (A) beat Lucas, 8-4; Ford (A) beat Bohan, 8-4; Zahnd (M) beat Quirk, 8-0; Hohnstein (M) beat Hanley, 8-4.
Doubles–Francel-North (A) beat Downs-Feldman, 8-6; Schmitz-Quirk (A) beat Lucas-Bohan, 8-1; Zahnd-Hohnstein (M) beat DeHaan-Feldhacker, 8-3; Hughes-Jones (M) beat Dietrich-Geest, 9-7; Swanson-Hauser (M) beat Garcia-Skinner, 8-6.
Southeast Polk 7, Ankeny 4
Singles–Dao (SEP) beat Schmitz, 8-3; Ciesielski (SEP) beat DeHaan, 8-1; North (A) beat Kenney, 8-2; Bartels (SEP) beat Quirk, 8-2; Berkey (SEP) beat Dietrich, 8-1; Geest (A) beat Bouchard, 8-4.
Doubles–Dao-Ciesielski (SEP) beat DeHaan-Francel, 8-6; North-Quirk (A) beat Kenney-Berkey, 8-2; Bouchard-Shields (SEP) beat Hanley-Dietrich, 8-4; Ford-Feldhacker (A) beat Bartels-Christensen, 8-4; Cech-Wetmore (SEP) beat Garcia-Skinner, 8-1.
Ankeny 9, Dallas Center-Grimes 2
Singles–Farley (DCG) beat Schmitz, 8-6; Francel beat Kalk, 8-1; DeHaan beat Laskey, 8-2; Ford beat Cottrell, 8-1; Geest beat Worley, 8-3; Swanson (DCG) beat Garcia, 9-8 (4).
Doubles–Schmitz-Quirk beat Farley-Reis, 8-2; DeHaan-Feldhacker beat Kalk-Laskey, 8-4; Francel-North beat Cottrell-Boerre, 8-4; Ford-Geest beat Worley-Bickford, 8-0; Hanley-Dietrich beat Weible-Reggio, 8-5.