Bobcat sophomore Jack Gruening, who head coach James Christensen has been very high on to start the season, was forced to sit out on Tuesday due to an illness, so since he was likely going to play in the No. 2 singles spot that caused essentially the entire MHS roster to shift up.

The Little Cyclones (1-0) took advantage of the late roster shakeup with an 11-0 sweep of the Bobcats (2-2), but Christensen said while they didn’t come away with any match victories he can’t fault how his guys performed on the day.

“A lot of the guys stepped up through a tough situation there with Jack being gone and played a spot higher than they are normally used to playing and against a good team like Ames that’s tough,” he said. “I thought Jacob Smith especially rose to the occasion and almost pulled off a victory. Everybody else at 4, 5 and 6 singles and Luke Smith at 2 singles, they played alright.”

Jacob Smith was moved up to the No. 3 singles spot for the first time in this still very young season, and while the move could have been trouble for the junior he actually ended up with one of the better individual performances on the day.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown junior Luke Smith makes a forehand return in the No. 1 doubles match on Tuesday against Ames in the Bobcats’ home opener at MHS.

Smith faced off against Jason Zheng, and after losing the first set 6-4 he rebounded for a strong 6-3 win in the second, forcing the match into a third set. Again, Smith found himself trailing in the third set, this time 7-3, but he rallied back to even things up at 8-8 before eventually losing 10-8.

Other than Jacob Smith, the next-closest match was Luke Smith, who lost at No. 2 singles to John Kim 6-2, 6-2. Christensen said Luke did well to continue fighting back in all of the games, and he was just one or two points away from walking away with a victory.

“(Kim) is a tough guy to figure out exactly what he’s going to try and do with you, after those first couple of games Luke kind of knew how he was going to be attacked and came up with a game plan that was going to put him in some good positions,” Christensen said. “Luke was there, he just kind of missed that finishing shot on a couple of points and that’s something we will work on and he’ll get there.”

The only Bobcat to not have to move up in competition was Luke McKibben, the usual No. 1 singles player for MHS. Being the top singles competitor, McKibben generally has to deal with the other team’s best player, and on Tuesday he ran up against a buzzsaw that is Ames’ Timmy Ellis.

Last year’s third-place winner at the state championship, Ellis is one of the favorites to win the singles state title this year and he showed that prowess by sweeping aside McKibben 6-0, 6-0, in a match that Christensen said was actually a good showing by McKibben.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown senior Kadin Skala makes a backhand return during a match on Tuesday against Ames in the Bobcats’ home opener.

“Luke McKibben, despite the score, probably had the best match I’ve seen him play,” Christensen said. “He was in every single game and Timmy just had one more shot than he did most of those points. When Luke and I talked about that after the game, usually after an 0-6, 0-6, loss you are kind of bummed, but to be honest I think he felt OK and I think that has given him some confidence going forward.”

On the doubles end the teams were again shifted around, though it was just the Nos. 2 and 4 singles teams that had to be adjusted. The No. 5 doubles team of David Wahl and David Brintnall had the closest match, falling to Luke Dirks and Jeremy Wessels 6-4, 6-4, but it was the No. 3 doubles team of Kadin Skala and Reed Fricke who might have had the gutsiest performance of the day.

After falling in the first set 6-0, Skala and Fricke actually held a lead for much of the second set until David Kim and Nate Withers came back and closed out with a 6-4 win in the second.

“Those two are the headband crew, they have been playing together since they were freshmen and I trust them to go out there and play to the best of their ability,” Christensen said of Fricke and Skala. “They started slowly this year in a couple of matches including today, it kind of took a while to find their groove but once they do they are a tough out.”

When the meet had completed it was clear the Bobcats were a bit downtrodden by the result, even given the curve ball they were thrown with Gruening’s illness. Christensen said his guys shouldn’t be down about the way they played, but this was a meet they thought they had a chance in.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We have some matches scheduled that we know that these are ones that we can get, and this was one we had circled and knew if we play our best this is a team we can probably steal one from,” Christensen said. “We didn’t play our best and Ames played well.”

Luckily the Bobcats have a chance to wash this loss from their mouths rather soon, as they head up to Mason City on Thursday for their second bout against a CIML Iowa Conference foe. Christensen said every chance the team gets to be outside and competing is a chance to get better, especially since they haven’t practiced outside much because of the weather.

“Thursday should be another close one so we really have to work on ironing out a few of those details. We gave away some points through communication doubles-wise, we gave away some by being impatient a couple of times in singles,” Christensen said. “Just positioning in doubles, we haven’t been outside to practice. We have been able to hit some volleys back and forth inside but just some of those things, especially when we are playing with partners that we might not normally be playing with.”

That meeting between the Bobcats and Mohawks will start at 4 p.m. on Thursday in Mason City.

Ames 11, Marshalltown 0

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

At Marshalltown

Singles

Timmy Ellis (A) def. Luke McKibben, 6-0, 6-0

John Kim (A) def. Luke Smith, 6-2, 6-2

Jason Zheng (A) def. Jacob Smith, 6-4, 3-6, (10-8)

David Kim (A) def. Joe Kennedy, 6-1, 6-0

Nick Matthews (A) def. Kadin Skala, 6-1, 6-4

Nate Withers (A) def. Jacob Eberle, 6-2, 6-0

Doubles

Ellis and Matthews (A) def. McKibben and Smith, 6-1, 6-1

Kim and Zheng (A) def. Smith and Kennedy, 6-3, 6-0

Kim and Withers (A) def. Skala and Reed Fricke, 6-0, 6-4

Nate Wilson and Nao Furukawa (A) def. Alonzo Ceren and Eberle, 6-2, 6-1

Luke Dirks and Jeremy Wessels (A) def. David Brintnall and David Wahl, 6-4, 6-4