The Bobcats’ No. 1 doubles tandem won its opening-round match at the Class 2A doubles tournament at Johnston High School and battled the rest of the day, ultimately coming up one win short of reaching the medal round.

After winning an Iowa Alliance Conference title as a team and qualifying as Marshalltown’s first state doubles pairing in almost 40 years, the day was going to be a special one no matter what the outcome.

“This season could not have gone better for me in my senior year,” Downs said. “We’ve made a lot of big improvements as a team and I’m sure happy to be able to play on this team and be able to have these new experiences that I haven’t had before.”

The Bobcats drew Linn-Mar’s Maddie Harris and Emily Brandt in the first round.

Falling behind in the first set, Downs and Feldman tied it up at 5-all and then did it again at 6-6 to force a seven-point tiebreak. An early 3-1 lead helped the duo to an 8-6 win in the tiebreaker to take the first set.

“We really had our energy up the first set,” Feldman said, “and we were playing aggressively which helped us, ultimately.”

The Lions jumped out in set two before the Bobcats again chipped away at the deficit. Downs held serve to tie it up at 5-5 again, then broke serve and finished off the Lions 7-5 in the second set.

“We were feeling really good when we came in today,” Downs said. “We’ve had a lot of practices during the week playing with the boys, and I think we were kinda prepared for what we’d be seeing.”

Marshalltown was given a much-different look in the quarterfinals against top-seeded Grace Frye and Juju Mauro of Dowling, last year’s sixth-place finisher in 2A.

The Maroons buzzed through Downs and Feldman, 6-0, 6-0 — the Bobcats found a few more points in set two, but couldn’t close out a game with the determined 1-seeds.

“I think it was a mental game against Dowling,” Feldman said. “We really just needed to believe in ourselves.”

What didn’t help was an almost 90-minute wait for their next match, the consolation quarterfinal against Valley’s Masha Shapiro and Kate Songer.

Downs and Feldman came out flat against the Valley duo, who quickly won the first set 6-0. The Bobcats got a game back in set two but bowed out by a final score of 6-0, 6-1.

“I think with the break and the wind picking up, we were just a little rusty at the start,” Downs said. “But I’m really happy with how today’s gone.”

Feldman noted that even one win in the state tournament can be hard to find, a point of pride for the ‘Cats.

“I’m so glad Rebekah was my partner this year,” Feldman added. “I’ve learned a lot from her and I’m really glad that we got to play here. … We’re losing a lot of seniors next year, so it’ll be an adjustment for sure, but we’ll put in the work in the offseason. The seniors this year have all had great leadership getting everyone out to open gyms and things like that. I aspire to be like them next year.”

MHS head coach John Fiscus thinks Feldman will be ready to take over as one of the team’s leaders next year.

“Getting this experience, she won’t have any blinders on at all,” Fiscus said. “She’s gonna say, ‘OK, we can do this, I’ve been there.’ Success always builds more success.

“The whole season has been excellent and having these girls here is a cherry on top, plus them getting a victory here. It’s just all positives. We kept building throughout the season and we can’t be disappointed in how it ended up. Now we can say this is where we’ve been, now let’s get back here.”