The Ankeny girls’ tennis team will get a shot at CIML Conference rival Valley after all.
The Hawkettes won two of the three doubles matches to beat visiting Des Moines Roosevelt, 5-4, in the quarterfinals of a Class 2A regional team tournament on Friday. The Roughriders finished the season with a 6-4 record.
Ankeny (4-8) will play No. 4 Valley (9-3) in a Region 2 semifinal on Tuesday at Crossroads Park at 9 a.m. Urbandale (7-5) will play Ames (7-4) in the other semifinal, with the two winners to face off in the regional final at 1 p.m.
The Hawkettes did not meet Valley during the regular season. The two teams were supposed to play on May 2, but the meet was cancelled due to bad weather.
On Friday, Sophie Schmitz played a key role in Ankeny’s win. After losing a hard-fought three-set match to state qualifier Scarlett Brown at No. 1 singles, Schmitz teamed up with KJ Quirk for a critical victory at No. 2 doubles.
“Sophie played awesome in singles, but came up a little short. Still, it was one of the best matches she’s played in her life,” said Ankeny coach Steve Smith. “She was a little down after losing, and I knew we needed her to dictate play in her doubles match. I asked her to focus on how well she played rather than the result. After the third game of the first set, (assistant) coach (Luke) Parkinson asked Sophie to just be super aggressive at the net. Sophie did just that, and she and KJ just fed off each other’s strengths.”
Ankeny got a three-set win at No. 2 singles from Lilith Francel. Samara Feldhacker at No. 5 and Paige Ford at No. 6 both won in straight sets.
“Lilith started off really slow, but she kicked it into gear to win the last two sets,” Smith said. “Paige dominated in her match. Samara was really impressive in her win, and then she and Mallory (DeHaan) were solid in their doubles victory (at the No. 3 spot).”
Here are the match-by-match results:
Ankeny 5, D.M. Roosevelt 4
Singles–Brown (R) beat Schmitz, 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (4); Francel (A) beat Bright, 1-6, 6-1, 1-0 (6); Smith (R) beat DeHaan, 6-4, 6-1; Pennington (R) beat North, 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (5); Feldhacker (A) beat Russell, 6-4, 6-2; Ford (A) beat Whitehead, 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles–Brown-Bright (R) beat Francel-North, 6-2, 6-3; Schmitz-Quirk (A) beat Smith-Pennington, 6-2, 6-3; DeHaan-Feldhacker (A) beat Russell-Whitehead, 6-2, 6-3.