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Conference win not convincing enough for MHS

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s Luke Smith, right, and Jacob Smith celebrate a point in the second set of their sweep of Southeast Polk’s Jack Benshoof and Zach Person in the No. 1 doubles match on Monday at the MHS Tennis Courts.

A singles sweep put the Marshalltown boys tennis team in a position to address some of its more pressing practice points during doubles play, but the Bobcats’ failure to do so drew their head coach’s ire at the end of the meet.

James Christensen closed his post-game speech by reminding his squad to enjoy its 8-3 victory over Southeast Polk in Monday’s CIML Iowa Conference meet without accepting its sub-par performance in doubles.

“We just have so many things to fix and we just don’t have a lot of practice time to cover it,” Christensen said. “The few times that I’m allowed to coach during a match, when those pieces of advice go unheeded and we lose some matches because of that, that sticks out and that’s something we need to fix.”

The Bobcats (3-2, 1-1) put the match out of reach right away, sweeping through singles competition and almost entirely in straight sets in the season opener for the Rams (0-1, 0-1). Jacob Smith needed a third-set tiebreaker to rally past Lucas Vroom at No. 5 singles, overcoming a first-set loss for a 3-6, 6-2, (10-6) triumph.

Every other singles match was a lopsided victory for MHS. Lucas Smith was a 6-0, 6-0 victor at No. 1, Jack Gruening won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2, Kevin Strand cruised 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3, Jacob Eberle was a 6-1, 6-2 winner at No. 4, and Nic Price stepped into varsity singles for the first time and notched a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 6.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s Ethan Benscoter makes a forehanded return during doubles play in Monday’s CIML Iowa Conference dual meet against Southeast Polk. Benscoter and Nic Price fell in straight sets at No. 3 doubles, but the Bobcats won the dual 8-3.

Dealing with the absences of Luke McKibben due to an injury and the mid-meet departure of Eberle due to a prior Eagle Scout engagement, the Bobcats handled it convincingly in singles action. Doubles play, however, is where Southeast Polk did its damage.

“For the most part everybody was playing with somebody they’re familiar with, it’s just a matter of hitting up in the lineup a little bit,” noted Christensen. “Some of the 50-50, 60-40 matches that we dumped tonight, that’s kind of been our M.O. (modus operandi) this year — we get into a close match and we freeze up … and that’s not a culture you want on your team. You want to play your best when the chips are down.”

The tandem of Luke and Jacob Smith scored a 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 1 doubles, and the pairing of Gruening and Strand achieved the same at No. 2, but the rest went the Rams’ way. All three were competitive scores, but the grit to match it was missing according to coach Christensen.

Price and Ethan Benscoter suffered a 6-3, 7-5 loss at No. 3 doubles, Drake Davis and Lucas Kramer fell 7-6 (5), 6-3 at No. 4, while Eli Thiessen and Justin Melde fought to within 6-4, 7-6 (2) in their varsity doubles debut at No. 5.

“Eli and Justin in their first varsity match today, I thought they actually played pretty well,” said Christensen. “They had a few things to fix but they were very ready to change things, experiment, they implemented everything we asked them to during the match and were able to fight back and lose in the set tiebreaker.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s Nic Price makes a backhanded return at the net during doubles play in Monday’s meet at MHS. Price and Ethan Benscoter fell in the No. 3 doubles match, but Price picked up a straight-set victory in his first varsity singles action with a 6-2, 6-3 decision over Cody Baagoe in the No. 6 slot.

“A lot of these things are stuff that we do need to practice to get fixed completely, but we can at least give it a shot. The guys need to become a little grittier, a little more adaptable if they’re going to be successful this year.”

Marshalltown heads out on the road twice this week with dual meets tonight at Des Moines Lincoln and Thursday at Fort Dodge.

Marshalltown 8, Southeast Polk 3

At Marshalltown

Singles

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Luke Smith (MHS) def. Jack Benshoof, 6-0, 6-0

Jack Gruening (MHS) def. Zach Person, 6-1, 6-0

Kevin Strand (MHS) def. Zach Wallace, 6-0, 6-2

Jacob Eberle (MHS) def. Jason Hesner, 6-1, 6-2

Jacob Smith (MHS) def. Lucas Vroom, 3-6, 6-2, (10-6)

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Nic Price (MHS) def. Cody Baagoe, 6-2, 6-3

Doubles

L. Smith and J. Smith (MHS) def. Benshoof and Person, 6-0, 6-3

Gruening and Strand (MHS) def. Wallace and Hesner, 6-0, 6-3

Vroom and Baagoe (SEP) def. Price and Ethan Benscoter, 6-3, 7-5

Sam Stutzman and Lucas Quick (SEP) def. Drake Davis and Lucas Kramer, 7-6 (5), 6-3

Cal Schultz and Tannor Gardner (SEP) def. Eli Thiessen and Justin Melde, 6-4, 7-6 (2)

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