After an early exit in the regional doubles tournament last season, Marshalltown’s top duo was a year stronger for Monday’s tourney and emerged as state qualifiers with a runner-up finish in the Class 2A Region 4 meet at the Marshalltown Court Complex.

Downs, a senior, and Feldman, a junior, defeated Cedar Falls’ Indre Jankunas and Madison Jeanes, 7-5, 6-1, in the regional semifinals to automatically qualify for state. They will compete in the IGHSAU Class 2A State Singles and Doubles Meet scheduled for May 24-25 at Johnston High School.

The girls are the first Marshalltown girls qualifiers since Krissy Lankelma won her second consecutive state singles title in 2010.

“It’s a great gift to be able to go to state for Marshalltown, a great opportunity,” Downs said. “We were feeling really good, and we were talking to each other during warmups this morning, that we were hitting it really well.”

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Halie Hohnstein makes a running return from the baseline during singles play at Monday’s Class 2A regional meet at the Marshalltown Court Complex.

As the No. 2 seed in the Region 4 bracket, they received a first-round bye to the quarterfinals, where they took on Mason City’s Olivia Wickman and Tamar Lewerke, a team Downs and Feldman had defeated six days prior.

The Bobcats owned the rematch with the Riverhawks, 6-0, 6-1, to reach the semifinals with Jankunas and Jeanes.

The Tigers were a much tougher test for Downs and Feldman, as the Bobcats fell into a 4-1 deficit early in the first set.

“They were just really good players,” Feldman said. “And I thought as long as we could stay away from their net person that we could outlast their ground stroke person. … And every single game, we knew we had the next one, no matter what the score was, we were getting the next one.”

That persistence paid off – trailing 5-4, the Bobcat girls won the next three games in a row to seize the first set and the momentum.

Downs and Feldman pushed that early momentum and overwhelmed the Tigers in set two, dropping the first game and then winning six in a row to punch their tickets.

“I think it really just came down to endurance,” Downs said. “We’ve been working hard together in practice and have had some good competition and we just played every point like it was game point.”

Top-seeded Sedina Begic and Anna Christensen of Waterloo West prevailed in a battle in the regional final, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

Marshalltown coach John Fiscus recalled Downs’ first regional tournament as a freshman, where she was defeated in less than an hour of singles play and then sat and watched the remainder of the eight hour tournament.

“We talk about it every so often, and now I can tell her she’s going to state,” Fiscus added. “Last year was their first time playing doubles together, and they just went to more and more tournaments, got more experience.”

The success also reflects on the overall team success the Bobcats have seen this year, with a 13-1 record. Now with a state doubles team, MHS can turn its attention to the regional team tournament which starts on Friday at home against Des Moines East.

“We’ve got a really, really deep team,” Downs said. “We’ve got a lot of girls with experience and a lot of girls who are willing to work hard.”

The Bobcats’ other doubles entry reached the quarterfinals – Ava Lucas and Claire Bohan won their first match of the day against Kaitlyn Thangaraj and Estella Huesman of Mason City, 6-2, 6-1, before falling to Begic and Christensen, 6-0, 6-1.

“They chose to go doubles as seniors this year, which was great,” Fiscus said. “Ava was fourth in singles last year but they thought they had a better chance at doubles and they just got a hard draw.”

Halie Hohnstein, another senior, defeated Rylei Brick of Mason City, 6-3, 6-2, before falling to fourth-seeded Jiwen Li of Ames in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-0. Lily Zahnd, a junior, lost to Ames’ Laura Chen in straight sets in the first round.

“She did great in that first match and the second one was a little bit tougher for her to play,” Fiscus said. “And Lily, she’ll be back next year, she’ll be back.”