T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s No. 1 doubles team of Kennedy Feldman, left, and Rebekah Downs is the program’s first state doubles qualifier since 1985. The state meet is Friday and Saturday at Johnston.

It stands to reason that Marshalltown senior Rebekah Downs and her No. 1 doubles partner junior Kennedy Feldman didn’t have much of an inkling that qualifying for state was a real possibility, no matter how many times their head coach said it.

The Bobcat girls’ tennis program hadn’t advanced a doubles team to state since 1985, and Marshalltown’s last state singles qualifier was a bit of a unicorn. Krissy Lankelma was a four-time placewinner and a back-to-back state champion in 2009 and 2010.

Not until the day of the Class 2A singles and doubles regional qualifier meet in Marshalltown did Downs and Feldman find the glimmer of hope that got them through to state.

On Friday, the Bobcat tandem will take to the courts at Johnston High School in hopes of playing their best first and worrying about the results later.

“I think it’s really exciting,” said Feldman. “I think it’s a step in the right direction for this program and I think we’ve hopefully inspired a lot of other tennis players to keep on going.”

Both players credited the city’s new Marshalltown Court Complex with the opportunity to work on their game without hindrance whenever they needed to. After last year’s first-round regional exit in doubles play, Downs and Feldman have spent plenty of time trying to improve.

This season, Marshalltown’s top doubles pairing posted a 13-3 record on the way to state, where they will face Linn-Mar juniors Emily Brandt and Madeline Harris in the opening round.

The state doubles competition is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. today.

“This was probably a goal and so it feels really good to be able to achieve my goal and to see the growth I’ve had the last four years in order to get here,” Downs said. “This didn’t become a thing until probably the day of regionals when we saw the teams that we got matched up with.

“We had a really good season before, and we started realizing that we had a pretty good chance of making it to state.”

Just like MHS head coach John Fiscus had been telling them.

“It’s been a long time since Krissy Lankelma went through in singles so it’s good we have a team to get through,” he said. “We’re somewhere in the top 16 now, which is a good starting point and we’ll see what happens this weekend.

“They decided to be a doubles team on their own a couple years ago and they’ve been playing together and improving every year.”

Downs and Feldman complement each other in their opposite tendencies, as Downs prefers to play from the baseline and Feldman is more comfortable moving around at the net. Their ability to anticipate each other’s shots and movements has been paramount to their growth as a doubles team.

“I really like to stay back and do ground strokes and just swing, and Ken is really awesome at the net and she’s really aggressive, so I think that’s what makes us really good is we’re really good at different things,” Downs said. “One thing I think we’ve done a lot more of this year is communicate with each other — just being able to see what our opponents are doing and what they like to do and being able to strategize and try to figure out how to win.”

On the other side of the Bobcats’ four-team bracket is the Dowling Catholic pairing of Grace Frye and Juju Mauro and Valley’s Rory Bird and Raegan Reuter. The winning teams will meet each other in the quarterfinals, while it’s a consolation match for the first-round losers.

“I think our goal ultimately now that we’ve made it to state is just to try our best and do our best at state,” Feldman said. “Only how we play can define us, not the results.”