The schedule didn’t allow the Ankeny girls’ tennis team to ease into its first fall season.
The Hawkettes traveled to Valley on Tuesday to face one of the state’s top teams. The Tigers had already defeated their first three opponents by a combined 26-3 margin.
The task proved to be as difficult as expected.
Valley posted an 11-0 victory in the CIML Conference opener, but Ankeny coach Katie Owens wasn’t discouraged by the result.
“Today’s match gave us a lot of little wins that don’t show up on the scoreboard,” Owens said. “We had longer rallies, great serves and placement of shots!”
The closest match of the day came at No. 1 doubles, where the Ankeny duo of Olivia North and Izzie Doyle dropped a 6-4, 6-3 decision to Leighton Chen and Sydney Simpson.
The Hawkettes will be back on the courts Thursday for another conference meet against Ankeny Centennial.
“I’ll be glad to use what we learned today in our next match!” Owens said.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
Valley 11, Ankeny 0
Singles: Dalton beat North, 6-1, 6-3; T. Carter beat Doyle, 6-0, 6-0; Lepe beat Quirk, 6-1, 6-2; Chen beat Dietrich, 6-0, 6-0; Polson beat Blume, 6-0, 6-1; Simpson beat Vlad, 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: Chen-Simpson beat North-Doyle, 6-4, 6-3; Valley (names unavailable) beat Quirk-Dietrich, 6-1, 6-2; Valley (names unavailable) beat Blume-Hutchinson, 6-0, 6-1; Johnson-Tomar beat Vlad-Shanks, 6-0, 6-0; R. Carter-Mikkelsen beat Doubleday-Olson, 6-0, 6-1.