A year ago, the Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team qualified all six of its players for the Class 2A state tournament.
On Monday at Valley, the host Tigers accomplished the same feat and thus prevented Centennial from advancing any of its players to this year’s tournament.
Valley dominated the regional singles and doubles tournament, sweeping the top two places in both divisions. Lexi Moen posted a 7-5, 6-0 victory over teammate Sophie Tannenbaum in the singles final, while Masha Shapiro and Kate Songer defeated teammates Rory Bird and Raegan Reuter, 6-2, 6-2, to win the doubles crown.
Both of Centennial’s doubles teams reached the semifinals before losing to Valley. Talia Baca also advanced to the semifinals in singles before losing to Tannenbaum.
“The outcome of the day was not what we had hoped for,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson. “Going into the day, we were feeling confident and ready, especially after having each of the girls seeded. However, ultimately we let unforced errors and lack of ability to change strategy take over our play today. Valley played great, and we couldn’t measure up to close on the semifinal matches.”
Centennial’s Samara Peterson and Megan Yuan rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Cara Ronk and Rylee Perrine of Council Bluffs Jefferson in the quarterfinals. They then lost to Bird and Reuter.
Jenna Benkufsky and Ara Lofgren posted a 6-2, 6-1 win over Lydia Dix and Abby Eichenberger of Council Bluffs Lincoln in the quarterfinals. They then fell to Shapiro and Songer.
In the third-place match, Peterson and Yuan defeated Benkufsky and Lofgren, 6-1, 6-2. It was a rematch of last year’s regional final, which was also won by Peterson and Yuan.
Baca, meanwhile, rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 triumph over Zoey Belt of Indianola in a singles quarterfinal. After losing to Tannenbaum, Baca posted a 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (3) victory over Emily Allen of Indianola in the third-place match.
“Talia had a good day of tennis,” Gustafson said. “She played with a strong pace of ball in her third match when she battled back in a third-set tiebreak. She also controlled the points in her first match as well. It was great experience for her during her freshman season.”
Gabby Mixdorf also competed in singles. She lost to Allen, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.
The Jaguars again played without senior Abbie Peterson, a two-time state placewinner. She has been out with an injury since winning both of her matches in the season opener against Urbandale on April 4.
“Now we turn our efforts to the team portion of postseason and look ahead to (next week),” Gustafson said.