Although the Ankeny girls’ tennis team dropped a pair of 9-2 decisions to Urbandale on Thursday and Dowling Catholic on Friday, the two meets could not have been any more different.
That was the assessment of Ankeny coach Steve Smith, who said his team followed an uninspired performance against the J-Hawks by playing its best tennis of the season 24 hours later at Dowling.
“From the top of our lineup down to No. 5 doubles, we competed well,” said Smith. “When you play the second-best team in the state, you expect quite a few bagel (6-0) sets, but we only had three in the entire meet.”
Smith’s daughter, Kira, remained unbeaten with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Grace Frye at No. 1 singles. Frye is the top-ranked player in the state.
“Kira faced one of her closest friends in Grace, who has given the only loss of the season to both the top 1A player (Gabriella Fleming of Cedar Rapids Xavier) and the No. 2 player in 2A (Madelyn Jepsen of North Scott),” Smith said. “Kira knew she’d have to bring her ‘A’ game to beat Grace. She did just that, never losing a service game in a dominant, straight-set victory.”
Smith then teamed up with Sophie Schmitz for a three-set win at No. 1 doubles over Frye and Juju Mauro, the reigning Class 2A champions. The Ankeny duo battled back after losing the first set.
“While Kira and Sophie played together as freshmen, I don’t think they’ve played together since. It took some time for them to gel together after dropping the first three games of the match,” Smith said. “Grace and Juju have been the gold standard for doubles in the state the last two years. I don’t think they’ve lost a single match in two years of playing together, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they win state again this year.
“It’s always tough to play a doubles team of that caliber, but it’s even more difficult when the doubles partners haven’t played together in years. They came back strong, but they had dug themselves too big of a hole to overcome in the first set. However, they brought it in the second set–becoming the first team to win a set against Dowling’s dominant duo. They went into the third-set tiebreaker with a lot of confidence and cruised to a 10-5 victory. It was some of the best Iowa girls’ high school doubles I’ve seen in my career. While Kira was certainly special, it was great to see the real Sophie Schmitz back on the court tonight. She’s one of the state’s best tennis players, and she showed it tonight.
“This certainly gives us a lot of confidence going into postseason play. As a coach, I’m encouraged to see my team compete at this level as we enter the most important part of the season. As a dad, I’m so proud of how my daughter played tonight,” he added.
The Hawkettes finished 2-6 in the CIML Conference and are now 3-8 overall. Dowling raised its records to 6-2 and 8-3.
On Thursday, Ankeny celebrated its Senior Night in the loss at home to Urbandale, which improved to 4-4 in the league and 7-4 overall. Schmitz cruised to an easy win at No. 2 singles, while Smith combined with Satviki Gorrela for another dominant victory at No. 2 doubles.
“It was great to be able to recognize our wonderful senior class that has accomplished so much over their four years,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, the match play was not where we want it to be. We lacked the energy, focus and confidence necessary to compete in the state’s toughest tennis conference.”
Ankeny will compete in a Class 2A regional singles and doubles tournament on Monday at Marshalltown.
Here are the match-by-match results from both meets:
Urbandale 9, Ankeny 2
Singles: Pederson beat Francel, 6-2, 6-3; Schmitz (A) beat Venteicher, 6-0, 6-1; Cannon beat Hanley, 6-4, 6-1; Thielman beat Gorrela, 6-3, 6-3; Kazazic beat Ventura, 6-0, 6-2; Negley beat K. Johnson, 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles: Pederson-Cannon beat Francel-Schmitz, 6-2, 6-3; Gorrela-Smith (A) beat Venteicher-Dykstra, 6-0, 6-1; Thielman-Kazazic beat Hanley-North, 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4); Negley-White beat Quirk-Vlad, 6-1, 7-6 (3); Spurgin-Kamjic beat Dietrich-Doyle, 6-1, 6-4.
Dowling Catholic 9, Ankeny 2
Singles: Smith (A) beat Frye, 6-2, 6-3; Mauro beat Francel, 6-3, 6-1; Bakros beat Schmitz, 6-2, 6-3; E. Johnson beat North, 6-1, 7-5; Pierron beat Hanley, 6-0, 6-1; Claypool beat Gorrela, 6-3, 6-1.
Doubles: Smith-Schmitz (A) beat Frye-Mauro, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5); Bakros-E. Johnson beat Francel-Gorrela, 6-3, 6-0; Pierron-Claypool beat North-Hanley, 6-4, 6-1; Valverde-Rice beat Quirk-Vlad, 6-0, 6-1; Murphy-Larson beat Dietrich-Doyle, 6-4, 6-3.