The Ankeny Centennial girls’ tennis team came up one win short during its non-conference meet against visiting North Polk on Monday.
The Comets won four of the five doubles matches to open their season with a 6-5 victory at the Prairie Ridge courts. The loss dropped Centennial’s record to 0-3.
“It was great to see the girls compete again today and already show growth from Friday,” said Centennial coach Alli Gustafson, whose team had opened the season with losses to Dubuque Hempstead and Iowa City West. “Avery (Bohnenkamp) had a great singles match, battling back in the second set and then finishing strong in the super-tiebreaker. She stayed calm and composed throughout the match and did a great job using her groundstrokes to her advantage.”
Bohnenkamp rallied for a 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (8) win over Sophia Cromley at the No. 4 position. She helped Centennial to a 4-2 lead during singles play.
The Jaguars also got victories from Talia Baca at the No. 1 spot, Ella Sutherland at No. 2 and Laura Schulz at No. 3. Baca improved her singles mark to 2-1 with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Hannah Mangae.
Centennial also got a win at No. 4 doubles from the duo of Miley Makovec and Carly Oliver. They teamed up for a three-set victory.
“Carly and Miley had a great match,” Gustafson said. “They worked really well as a pair, communicated with each other, and used their volleys effectively to finish points.”
In the end, though, North Polk won every close match that it needed to win in order to prevail. The Comets won a super-tiebreaker to close out three of their doubles victories, and they earned another win in doubles via a pair of tiebreakers.
“It was another great meet for our team!” Gustafson said. “We had seven super-tiebreakers throughout the meet and were able to clinch three of them, so one of our biggest takeaways is that we need to continue working on closing out matches when we have the opportunity. We competed hard and put ourselves in positions to win, and now we need to focus on staying composed and finishing strong when the pressure is on.
“I’m proud of the way the girls continue to battle and look forward to seeing us keep building from here!” she added.
The Jaguars will travel to Waukee on Tuesday to play the Warriors (0-0) in their CIML Conference opener. It will be Waukee’s first meet of the season.
Here are the match-by-match results from Monday’s meet:
North Polk 6, Ankeny Centennial 5
Singles: Baca (AC) beat Mangae, 6-0, 6-1; Sutherland (AC) beat Wiseman, 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (3); Schulz (AC) beat (name unavailable), 6-4, 6-3; Bohnenkamp (AC) beat Cromley, 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (8); Watson (NP) beat Pedersen, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (8); (Name unavailable) (NP) beat Heyer (AC), 6-2, 7-5.
Doubles: Mangae-Wiseman (NP) beat Baca-Sutherland, 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (8); (Names unavailable) (NP) beat Schulz-Bohnenkamp, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4); Cromley-Watson (NP) beat Pedersen-Heyer, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (7); Makovec-Oliver (AC) beat (names unavailable), 6-2, 1-6, 1-0 (5); Clark-Schmidt (NP) beat Wetrich-Evans, 7-6 (6); 3-6, 1-0 (7).