Panther tennis teams bow out Saturday

Creston/Orient-Macksburg girls tennis is getting closer to clearing a familiar hurdle.

The Panther boys, meanwhile, earned valuable experience with a young lineup in substate play Saturday.

At Huxley Saturday morning, Ballard’s undefeated team improved to 14-0 with a 5-2 Class 1A regional final victory over Creston/O-M. The Bombers take on Shenandoah today in the first round of state tournament play after the Fillies edged Red Oak Tuesday, 5-4 on a third-set super tiebreaker in the final doubles match.

The past two years Ballard had knocked out the Panthers in team competition by 5-0 scores. Saturday’s matchup was more competitive.

Jenna Taylor defeated Emily Jurgenson at No. 1 singles in straight sets after winning a first-set tiebreaker. At No. 3 singles, Caitlin McIlravy won her match in straight sets. And, last week in district singles and doubles, the Panthers had been successful in doubles competition against a different combination of Ballard teams.

So, there was hope for the Panthers Saturday if they could come out even in the six singles matches. However, Ballard’s Alex Peterson took a second-set tiebreaker, which eliminated the hopes of Panther junior Alli Thomsen of forcing a third-set super tiebreaker.

Leading 4-2 after singles, the Bombers needed only to win one doubles matches and did so in quick fashion at No. 3 doubles with its deep lineup. At the time, Creston/O-M was tied 1-1 in one of the other doubles matches and trailing 2-1 in the other.

“We lost to Ballard the previous two years,” said Creston/O-M assistant coach Amanda Plymale. “Coming out of Thursday with two wins against two Ballard doubles teams, we were a little more confident in our strokes and our doubles play. They are a very deep team, but this year we battled with them. We had a lot of close matches. We just needed one more singles match and I think we would have had a chance.”

The encouraging aspect for Creston/O-M’s all-junior lineup was that their perennial obstacle had a lineup of three seniors and three juniors.

“Hopefully we can get after them next year with a full returning lineup,” Plymale said.

At Carroll, Denison-Schleswig defeated the Creston/O-M boys 5-1 in a substate semifinal matchup.

Freshman Jaden Driskell gained the Panthers’ only victory at No. 4 singles. The Monarchs clinched the win before any doubles matches were played.

“We were playing a great opponent today in Denison-Schleswig, who won the Hawkeye 10 tennis tournament this year,” said Creston/O-M coach Kevin Cooper. “I thought we competed well, but we were just outgunned today. It was a great experience for our younger kids to go through. Next year it won’t seem like a new situation, and hopefully we can fare better.”

“Creston is a very young team who played well in their district tournament,” said Denison-Schleswig coach Aaron Ratliff. “We won the first three matches before the rest of the singles matches took the court. These next three were much tighter, but we won two of the three to claim the win.”

Ratliff said Jaden Hiden was playing his first varsity singles match and closed out the victory with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 6 singles. Porter Bilsten played one position higher than normal and pulled out a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles.

The Monarchs followed with a 5-1 win over Glenwood to qualify for the state tournament on June 2 in Des Moines, reaching the final four of Class 1A competition.

“This is the first time I’ve had a team make the final four and qualify for team state,” Ratliff said. “In 1998 we had a team make it to the final eight, before losing 5-4 to Red Oak.”

The Creston/O-M tennis season is not over, however.

Ryan Kucera represents the Panther boys team in state singles competition Friday at Byrnes Park tennis courts in Waterloo. The tournament continues on Saturday.

Two Creston/O-M girls doubles team will participate in state competition June 4-5 in Ankeny. The team of Taylor and Thomsen qualified as a regional champion, and the duo of McIlravy and Sydney Dunphy advanced as the runner-up team at Norwalk.

Girls Regional Final

At Huxley

Ballard 5, Creston/O-M 2

Singles — Jenna Taylor (Cr) def. Emily Jurgenson (B), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4; Alex Peterson (B) def. Alli Thomsen (Cr), 6-2, 8-6 (8-6); Caitlin McIlravy (Cr) def. Meredith Ossian (B), 6-3, 7-5; Rylee Cahill (B) def. Sydney Dunphy (Cr), 6-2, 6-1; Olivia Astanta (B) def. Gracie Russell (Cr), 6-1, 6-1; Shania Schmidt (B) def. Ann Waigand (Cr), 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles — O. Astanta-Hannah Astanta def. Russell-Waigand, 6-0, 6-0. Not completed: Thomsen-Taylor (Cr) vs. Jurgenson-Ossian (B) and Dunphy-McIlravy (Cr) vs. Peterson-Cahill (B).

Boys Substate

At Carroll

Denison-Schleswig 5, Creston/O-M 1

Singles — Mitch Kinsey (D-S) def. Ryan Kucera (Cr), 6-1, 6-1; Matt Moran (D-S) def. Triston Davidson (Cr), 6-4, 6-0; Spencer Pauley (D-S) def. Jacob Cook (Cr), 6-1, 6-1; Jaden Driskell (Cr) def. Sam Weber (D-S), 7-5, 6-3; Porter Bilsten (D-S) def. Sam Eagan (Cr), 6-2, 6-4; Jaden Heiden (D-S) def. Dustin Merritt (Cr), 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles — None completed.