T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown juniors Luke McKibben, left, and Luke Smith pose on the courts at MHS before practice on Wednesday. The two Lukes will be the first Bobcats to play in the state tournament in five years when they take the court at Veteran’s Memorial Tennis Center this morning.

A little over two weeks ago, the Marshalltown boys tennis doubles team of Luke McKibben and Luke Smith became the first state qualifiers for the Bobcats in five years.

That’s a fact that isn’t lost on head coach James Christensen, though he said the guys might not realize just where they fit into the history of this program.

“I think there have been enough people congratulating them and I’ve tried to clue them in that this is a special thing,” Christensen said. “We’ve got to have a good team come up and get the right district, all we can ask for is a chance in districts and they got it and took advantage of it.”

Smith, who’s family is entrenched in the tennis and general sports scene at MHS, said as soon as the guys got back from their state qualification he was hearing all sorts of praise.

“It’s been actually really exciting, the day back after districts was really crazy,” Smith said. “About every other five minutes someone else would tell me ‘nice job,’ and congratulate me. Obviously the Smith family is really proud, so that’s always nice to hear.”

Once the celebration wore off it was time to get to work, and the two Lukes have been working extra hard for the last two weeks to prepare for their first appearance at the Class 2A State Tournament in Cedar Rapids, starting this morning.

Though they have known the time and place for the start of the state meet, the two Lukes haven’t known who they will be facing in the first round, and they won’t know until minutes before the first round starts.

Because of that, McKibben said they’ve had to prepare for every possible outcome.

“We’ve really focused on volleys and played a lot of matches against people we don’t normally play against to get more experience against different types of players,” he said.

What is nice, Christensen said, is this time leading up to the start of the state tournament has given the guys some time to focus on their play as a doubles team.

“During the season we are splitting our time between singles and doubles the whole way, so after the prelims of substate we could focus on doubles,” Christensen said. “That’s been a blessing and a curse, we’ve been able to do some of those little detail things like working on volleys, working on overheads, working on serving volley more than we normally do. The second part of that is fighting boredom a little bit, doing the same thing over and over for two weeks is a long time.”

The team has even called on some help from the outside to bring the guys along, including former MHS head basketball coach and Smith’s uncle, Scott Smith.

“We have had some coach challenge matches, coach Smith and I took them on a couple of times and I brought in some other guys as well,” Christensen said. “Try to show them some different style, coach Smith plays old-guy tennis, which is smart and he doesn’t hit the ball hard, just puts it in good spots.”

“He has a very weird style of play but it works,” McKibben said of coach Smith. “Every single ball he hits it comes back over and you try to put it away but he will somehow get it back.”

As a team this season, the two Lukes are 8-4, with two of their losses coming to great pairings from Ames and Dowling Catholic. Only one of those teams will be in the 16-team field though, with the Maroons pairing of Jack Drey and Eddie Benning earning a qualification as well, but McKibben said playing tough talent both in doubles and in his spot at No. 1 singles has prepared him to fight.

“Playing up against some people that are way better than me has prepared us for state because we are going to be going up against people that have been playing tennis their entire lives,” he said.

Smith thinks it’s the duo’s ability to keep each other calm and focused that will lead to success.

“We give each other high-fives after every point just to keep each other up, just try to stay positive,” he said. “We just really play well together when we are both happy, so positivity [is key].”

Christensen said it’s both their ability to play off each other and their general love for the game that helps guide them to victory.

“Luckily they are both kids that like to play tennis. They enjoy it, they enjoy competing, neither one of them is OK with just rolling over and dying,” Christensen said. “Putting two competitive guys like that together sometimes doesn’t work because they start sniping at each other when somebody is down a little bit, but the thing about these guys is they really pick each other up and have the whole year.”

Having two players who are great singles competitors in their own right doesn’t always work out as a doubles team, but Christensen said the two Lukes are a special circumstance.

“I like having two alphas on there, neither one of them is going to be deferential to the other,” he said. “If anything they will sometimes step on each other’s toes a little bit and I would much rather have the rackets banging into each other going for that middle volley than have the ball land right in between.”

Being the first Bobcats to participate in the state meet is both a good and bad thing, because they shouldn’t feel much pressure to succeed but also would like to bring home some hardware for the trophy room in the Roundhouse.

“They know that they’ve played really well, they are happy to be there but they are not satisfied,” Christensen said. “They know whoever we draw, there is no easy match anywhere. They know they are in for a dogfight but they are confident that if they play well, they have a chance against anybody.”

Winning a state title is of course the goal of every player who steps on the courts at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center, but outside of that McKibben said he wants to at least come away with a couple of wins.

“We definitely want to make it to Saturday but overall we want to get a lot of experience against better players that we haven’t played before and make progress for next year,” he said.

Smith agreed, saying no matter what happens this will be great experience for the two heading into their senior year.

“We want to win as many matches as we can,” he said. “We will set the stakes high and try to win every match that we play. This is a new experience for us and we want to go out and win.”

The two Lukes will be in action at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in Cedar Rapids this morning for the 2A State Tennis Singles and Doubles Championship, with first-round matches starting at approximately 8:30 a.m.