The depleted Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team traveled to the Byrnes Park Tennis Center in Waterloo on Monday and lost to a pair of tough opponents at the Cedar Falls Quadrangular.
The Jaguars dropped an 11-0 decision to Valley in a CIML Conference meet, then fell to the host Tigers, 9-0, in a non-conference matchup. They are now 0-4 in the league and 0-6 overall.
Centennial again played without the injured duo of Samara Peterson and Talia Baca, its top two players. Baca has yet to play this season, while Peterson suffered an injury during last Tuesday’s meet against Ankeny.
“With those two still out, and another injured in our doubles lineup (Madison Gorsh), other athletes on our team stepped up and gave it their all,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson. “Although the results weren’t what we hoped for, we continue to grow, learning new aspects of the game each time we step on the court. The effort and resilience of our team remain strong, and we’re excited to keep building from here.”
Natalie Carr has been a bright spot at the No. 6 singles position over the last four meets. She won the first set against Valley’s Dylanie Polson before losing in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-3).
Valley raised its records to 3-1 in the conference and 4-1 overall. The Jaguars then lost to Cedar Falls (7-2), which had earlier handed Linn-Mar (Marion) its first loss, 5-4.
“While we came up short in both matches, the continued experience gained playing such versatile and high-level teams was valuable,” Gustafson said.
Centennial will host a conference meet against Dowling Catholic (2-0) on Tuesday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday’s meets:
Valley 11, Centennial 0
Singles: Tannenbaum beat Bhat, 6-1, 6-0; Bird beat Hanson, 6-0, 6-0; Reuter beat Swanson, 6-0, 6-0; Keeney beat Sutherland, 6-3, 6-4; Lepe beat Piper, 6-3, 6-3; Polson beat Carr, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-3).
Doubles: Bird-Reuter beat Bhat-Hanson, 6-1, 6-3; Tannenbaum-Keeney beat Swanson-Sutherland, 6-2, 6-2; Lepe-Polson beat Piper-Carr, 6-0, 6-2; Johnson-Carter beat Bohnenkamp-Schulz, 6-2, 6-3; Simpson-Morrow beat Zhang-Brooks, 6-1, 6-2.
Cedar Falls 9, Centennial 0
Singles: Jankunas beat Bhat, 6-1, 6-1; King beat Hanson, 6-4, 6-1; Jeanes beat Swanson, 6-1, 6-0; Garbarino beat Sutherland, 6-3, 6-0; Suiter beat Piper, 6-2, 6-1; Shepard beat Carr, 6-4, 6-1.
Doubles: Jankunas-Jeanes beat Bhat-Hanson, 6-1, 6-1; King-Garbarino beat Swanson-Sutherland, 6-4, 6-3; Suiter-Shepard beat Piper-Carr, 6-4, 6-3.