Once again, the doubles matches proved to be the difference for the Ankeny boys’ tennis team in a narrow loss.
After the Hawks split the six singles matches against visiting Southeast Polk on Tuesday, the Rams won four of the five doubles matches to escape with a 7-4 victory in a CIML Conference matchup.
Southeast Polk improved to 2-3 in the league and 4-5 overall. Ankeny’s records dropped to 1-4 and 1-5.
Four of the Hawks’ five losses have been decided by the doubles matches.
“We’re getting closer,” said Ankeny coach Ron Miller. “We just have a couple of kids that are learning that they can’t lose focus at the end of a match. We either start ahead and don’t finish, or we come back and fall a bit short.”
On Tuesday, Ankeny got dominant wins from its top three singles players. Dylan Victor, Garrett Weichers and Grady Schlosser all won in straight sets while losing a combined total of just seven games.
However, Southeast Polk kept the meet close by winning the other three matches. The Rams rallied from a one-set deficit to win at both the No. 4 and 6 positions.
Victor and Weichers then teamed up for a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 1 doubles, but it wasn’t enough as Southeast Polk took the other four matches–two of them in a super-tiebreaker.
The Hawks will host another conference meet against Dowling Catholic on Thursday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
S.E. Polk 7, Ankeny 4
Singles: Victor (A) beat Christiansen, 6-1, 6-0; Weichers (A) beat Marshall, 6-2, 6-0; Schlosser (A) beat Fuller, 6-3, 6-1; Gulbranson (SEP) beat Black, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (11-9); Hansen (SEP) beat Riesberg, 6-3, 6-2; Huffey (SEP) beat James, 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (11-9).
Doubles: Victor-Weichers (A) beat Marshall-Fuller, 6-1, 6-0; Christiansen-Seals (SEP) beat Schlosser-Black, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8); Gulbranson-Huffey (SEP) beat Riesberg-James, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); Cech-Knutzon (SEP) beat Geest-Johnson, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4); Cunningham-Schulte (SEP) beat Neal-Gray 6-2, 6-0.