For much of the 2025 season, the Ankeny boys’ tennis team struggled against its opponents during doubles play.
That wasn’t the case on Tuesday in the Hawks’ season opener.
After splitting the six singles matches against visiting Ballard (Huxley), Ankeny won three of the five doubles matches to post a 6-5 victory in the non-conference meet.
“Our doubles started much stronger than last year for sure,” said Ankeny coach Ron Miller.
The Hawks got singles victories from Garrett Weichers at the No. 1 position, Michael Black at No. 3 and Perez Perez at No. 5. Black won a third-set super-tiebreaker to even the match at 3-3, but it was Weichers and Perez who earned praise from Miller.
“Garrett was impressive at No. 1,” Miller said after Weichers lost only one game in a straight-set triumph. “And Perez was most impressive having only played tennis for a little over a week and winning his match.”
Weichers then teamed up with Treyton Riesberg for another win at No. 1 doubles, while Perez combined with Holden Sungren to win at the No. 5 spot. Ankeny also got a victory from the No. 4 team of Lincoln Geest and Noah Gray.
“Ballard was stronger than anticipated and will be tough in Class 1A,” Miller said. “But the match was very informative in finding our strengths and a couple of places that we need to work harder on.”
Ankeny will now have a week off before hosting Valley in its CIML Conference opener on April 9.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
Ankeny 6, Ballard (Huxley) 5
Singles: Weichers won, 6-1, 6-0; Schlosser lost, 6-4, 6-3; Black won, 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (8); Riesberg lost, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 1-0 (6); Perez won, 6-4, 6-3; Johnson lost, 7-5, 6-1.
Doubles: Weichers-Riesberg won, 6-2, 7-5; Schlosser-Black lost, 7-5, 7-6 (5); Johnson-Garcia lost, 6-3, 6-2; Geest-Gray won, 6-3, 6-2; Perez-Sungren won, 7-5, 6-4.
