The duo had a tough start in their opener against the Ames pair of Nick Matthews and Nate Withers, dropping the first 7-5, but McKibben and Smith dominated the first two games of set two on the way to building a 2-0 lead.

It seemed the Bobcat boys were on their way to taking the third game as well, up 40-15, but Matthews and Withers battled back to send the game into deuce, where it would remain for longer than either team would have liked.

Deuce. Ad-in. Deuce. Ad-out. On and on the game drew on, and it became clear that all of the momentum that MHS had built up was teetering on how this point ended up.

The Little Cyclone combo found a way to take the game, reducing the Bobcat lead to 2-1 rather than 3-0, then Matthews and Withers would take five of the next six sets, eliminating McKibben and Smith from championship contention with a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown junior Luke McKibben tosses his racket in frustration during the Class 2A State Singles and Doubles Tournament in Cedar Rapids on Friday. McKibben and doubles partner Luke Smith were eliminated on the first day of competition by going 0-2.

“They really got in our heads,” Smith said. “We should have easily won that game but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

“They did a wonderful job of taking away the momentum, they hit some great shots and are both great guys,” McKibben said. “At the end of the day they hit more shots in than we did.”

Though the two Lukes moved into the consolation bracket, their path didn’t get any easier, as they then had to face an Iowa City West team that featured half of the Trojans’ winning doubles pair from last year in Jack Wenzel.

Marshalltown and Iowa City West split the first two games of the first set, but after the 1-1 tie Wenzel and his partner Mukundan Kasturirangan went to work, winning the next 11 games to finish McKibben and Smith’s state run with a 6-1, 6-0 defeat.

MHS head coach James Christensen said if he could have hand-picked the team his guys would face in the first round it would have been the Ames duo, but even with the ideal draw his guys struggled.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“There are no easy draws when you are district runners up, you know you’re going to face a champion, but out of the eight teams we could play against we thought we would have the best chance against Ames and we were fortunate enough to draw them,” Christensen said. “We just couldn’t get the engine rolling, we tried to start it up multiple times, tied it up at 4-4 in the first set, but it kind of sputtered out and dropped at 5-7. Got up 2-0 and 40-15 in the third game of that second set but just kind of sputtered. We could never turn over the engine and let loose.”

This was the first state appearance for either McKibben or Smith, as they were the first Bobcats to qualify for the tournament since Ryan Shomo in 2013, who was in attendance at Veteran’s Memorial Tennis Center to watch his alma mater compete.

After waiting nearly two and a half weeks to get to the meet, the boys had to wait just a bit longer, with their first match not starting until nearly 11:30 a.m.

McKibben said that might have been a little too long to think about the enormity of the situation.

“There were a whole lot of jitters I’d say. I was super nervous, borderline shaking out there on the court, but we kind of fought through it,” he said. “We didn’t play our best today but overall it was a great experience to build on for next year.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Those nerves bore out on the court, with the duo dropping their first two games to Ames and winning only one point in the process. But then things started to round out, and McKibben and Smith tied things up with Matthews and Withers at 2-2 and 4-4 in the first set.

“Going into each match we were staying mentally positive,” Smith said. “We were talking to each other, if we get down we have to get right back up because this is obviously a huge meet. Unfortunately we couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

Even against Iowa City West, the two clearly showed some growth, especially with the way they were able to challenge the Trojans from the start.

“We definitely came out stronger than we did in the first match,” McKibben said. “We got a game but that’s not where we want to be. The offseason starts now for sure and we will be back next year.”

Christensen said it was always going to be a tough draw facing off against a team the caliber of Iowa City West in the consolation, considering they were state singles, doubles and team champs last year, but he was proud of the way his guys never gave up.

PHOTO BY MARISSA VAN WINGEN-ITES/IOWA FALLS TIMES CITIZEN

“I am glad we were able to bounce back and go out there and play with some conviction. Go out there and show some of the talent that we do have against Iowa City West,” Christensen said. “It ended up 6-1, 6-0, but the match was closer than that. We had a lot of great points, Iowa City West is just a better team right now.”

The two Lukes end their doubles year with a 9-6 record and they now have a taste for what it takes to compete at this high of a level.

“Boy, it’s tough. We had some really good competition, I think playing better people makes us a lot better as a doubles team and we are just going to practice on what we did wrong today and come back even stronger next season,” Smith said.

More importantly, Christensen said, the guys now know what they aren’t doing well enough to compete, and they can work to change that.

“We play in a good conference, but when we come over east the level of play kicks up a notch in the Mississippi Valley Conference,” Christensen said. “There is no margin for error, and any weakness in your game gets exposed immediately. If you have never played somebody who exposes that weakness, you don’t tend to work on it, but our weaknesses got exposed today so that’s something they will need to work on.”

Both McKibben and Smith said they are ready to get to work for next season right away, and they both expect big things out of Bobcat tennis in the near future.

“I am really excited for next season, I wish it was here already,” Smith said. “We have a lot of guys returning, our top pretty much five out of six are returning, so we should have a really, really good team next year.”

“We are going to do a whole lot of hard work in the offseason, come back next year and grind in the season and hopefully make it back next year,” McKibben said.

Teske eliminated in 1A

South Hardin junior Cauy Teske also made his first appearance at the 1A State Singles and Doubles Championships at Byrnes Park Tennis Center in Waterloo, though his day had an inauspicious start, drawing top-seeded Jon Lansing from Cedar Rapids Xavier in the first round.

Teske gave a good effort but was swept through by the talented Saint, 6-0, 6-0, sending him to the consolation bracket.

There Teske would go on to face Nile Petersen from Atlantic, where he was able to take a few games but ultimately lost in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.

Despite the losses, Teske was still the first Tiger to make the state tournament in 10 years, and with another year left to improve he has a chance to return to the state scene.