Girls at Denison:  Denison 9, Atlantic 0

Singles:

#1 Rachael Ingram 12 (D) over Tori Dolch 11 (A) 6-1 6-1
#2 Michaela Fineran 12 (D) over Leah Tjepkes 10 (A) 6-0 6-0
#3 Kassidy Ipsen 12 (D) over Lexi Allen (A) 6-2 6-1
#4 Carly Sis 12 (D) over Abby Johnson 11 (A) 6-0 6-0
#5 Megan Kinsey 12 (D) over Lisa Gearheart 10 (A) 6-1 6-0
#6 Sydney Kinzer 11 (D) over Kaley Miller 11 (A) 6-1 6-0

Doubles:

#1 Ingram/Ipsen (D) over Dolch/Tjepkes (A) 6-0 6-0
#2 Fineran/Kathy Ibarra 12 (D) over Allen/Johnson (A) 6-0 6-1
#3 Sis/Kinsey (D) over Gearheart/Libby Gifford 11 (A) 6-4 6-0

Coach Shawn Petersen’s Comments:

Denison girls showed us why they are undefeated — very impressive team up and down the lineup… Denison has 61 girls out for tennis, which is outstanding for them, and Coach Houston does a great job with his squad… overall,  I really loved how our girls competed — there wasn’t any quit, even with the big challenge facing our girls.  I thought up and down our singles lineup I saw good things at times from the girls, but we had a hard time putting 2 or 3 good points together.  We’ve really been working on strategy and overall court awareness, and sometimes it’s obvious we’re thinking more than playing and reacting to what’s happening — but it’s coming.  In doubles, Gearheart and Gifford were up 4-2 in their first set against two veteran seniors, and were playing very well, until Sis/Kinsey ramped up their games and took the final match.  I thought in doubles all three teams showed some flashes, and they got more good experience against what is probably the best team in the Hawkeye 10.  The girls travel to Clarinda on Thursday and host the 8 team Trojann Invitational on Saturday.

Denison Boys at Atlantic:  Atlantic 7, Denison 2

Singles:

#1 Mitch Leiferman 12 (A) over Riley Sondag 12 (D) 10-0
#2 Tyler Fischer 11 (A) over Joshua Tucker 11 (D) 10-4
#3 Nathan Fastje 10 (D) over Matt Cook 12 (A) 10-3
#4 T.J. Pauley 11 (D) over Gunnar Blum 12 (A) 10-1
#5 Noah Welter 11 (A) over Ben Claypool 12 (D) 10-5
#6 Jake Arneson 10 (A) over Mitch Kinsey 9 (D) 10-8

Doubles:

#1 Leiferman/Fischer (A) over Sondag/Pauley (D) 10-2
#2 Cook/Blum (A) over Tucker/Fastje (D) 10-6
#3 Welter/Arneson (A) over Claypool/Kinsey (D) 11-9

Coach Shawn Petersen’s Comments:

Nice bounce-back win for the boys — we’ve gotten it handed to us the last two times out vs Creston and Glenwood, so I think our confidence was rattled some, and we needed to get our mojo back a little bit… Denison came in undefeated and have always given us trouble, so I thought it would be  a tough night;  the match was at it’s tipping point during 5 and 6 singles — we had split the first 4 matches, and had the same guys going out in doubles — so it looked like it was maybe going to come down to #3 doubles… but then Jake Arneson, who was down 5-2, got in a groove and rallied for the 10-8 win at #6, and that sealed the win for us as Noah had just won his match and we won handily at #1 doubles.  Mitch at #1 cruised and is really looking good in that spot, remaining undefeated in singles this year; Tyler got a nice win for us at 2, playing well throughout the match to get us off to a nice start; Matt struggled at #3 with the unusual style of his opponent, who played a really smart match — Matt was playing at less than 100% in his first match since injuring his knee a couple of weeks ago, but it was nice having him back.  Gunnar struggled at #4 and just never got it going — he’s still in “reacting” mode rather than “anticipating” mode — and is still working on consistency — he has all the shots, and will continue to improve with more experience.  Noah played well at #5 — it was tight early, and then he gradually started to pull away and got a big win for us there.  Jake had his typical slow start in the final singles match, but once he started to figure out his opponent, he slowly gained ground and got the clinching point for us — another great win for Jake, who is now 3-1 in singles.

In doubles, we mixed it up a little bit — this was the first match for any of these guys with their partner, so I was really pleased with the sweep there — Mitch and Tyler are our two best doubles players, and they looked like it, winning convincingly; Matt and Gunnar were down 5-2 early, then started playing more aggressive, attacking doubles and rolled to the win — a nice rally for both of them after losing in singles; and then Noah and Jake topped it off with a tight win at #3 — they didn’t finish until nearly 8:30 so they were on the court a long time — I was really happy for both of them to get 2 wins apiece.

The boys host Clarinda on Thursday night in Atlantic.