The Marshalltown girls’ tennis program snapped a 39-year slump last spring, and now the Bobcats are the verge of starting another much more enjoyable streak.

MHS senior Kennedy Feldman and sophomore Kate Sandvick scored the school’s second-straight trip to state doubles by finishing second in Monday’s Class 2A Region 4 tournament at the Marshalltown Court Complex.

The Bobcat pair won their first two matches to punch their ticket to state, advancing to the May 30-31 finale at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex in Iowa City. Feldman and Sandvick were defeated in the regional championship match by Waterloo West seniors Anna Christensen and Sedina Begic, but qualifying was first and foremost on the Bobcats’ minds.

“The goal from the beginning of the season was ultimately to get to state, so I’m really proud that we did that,” said Feldman, who was a state doubles qualifier a year ago. “I’m super excited obviously for state, but our bodies are tired after this. We will grind it out in practice and try to prepare our bodies for state and to see these harder teams.

“We’ll take this feeling and hopefully this will propel us on to better things.”

Feldman and 2024 graduate Rebekah Downs advanced to state doubles last season, becoming the first Bobcat duo to do so since 1985. They went 1-2 in their state debut, falling short of the second day, but their presence was a foundation for Marshalltown to build upon.

Fast-forward to a year later, and the Bobcats are going back-to-back.

“It’s a familiar feeling now compared to last year, but it still feels great and we’re still gonna get ready to go to state and try and do our best and maybe go farther than we did last year,” said Feldman.

“We were very focused on getting to state,” said Sandvick. “It’s a really cool opportunity. I didn’t really expect it to be honest because I just kinda side-quested tennis. It’s not like softball to me, which I live and breathe, but it’s really awesome and a great opportunity and I’m glad to have Kennedy with me.”

The second-seeded Bobcat tandem had to stick together for Monday’s regional tournament, which was played under hot and windy conditions. Even with a first-round bye, it became a long day for Marshalltown’s top pair.

Feldman and Sandvick started in the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Alli VanderZee and Callie Buck of Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

In the semifinals, Marshalltown met with a familiar foe from Ankeny in seniors Lilith Francel and Sophie Schmitz. The Bobcats held on for an 8-5 win during their meeting on May 2, which made for a fiery rematch in the winner-qualifies regional semifinals.

A handful of contentious points during the first two sets led to a volatile split, with Feldman and Sandvick taking the first, 6-3, and the Hawks duo scoring the second, 6-4.

Marshalltown head coach John Fiscus did his best to bring his Bobcats back down to level before the third set commenced.

“We just said to relax,” Fiscus said. “You’ve just gotta play, gotta quit making unforced errors and keep hitting it where they’re not at. Just be a little bit more positive and talk to each other — we’re always about communication.”

The pep talk played its part and helped the Bobcats settle into their winner-take-all third set, and the result was a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory for Feldman and Sandvick.

“Communication is everything, and it’s great that Kate and I have that chemistry that we can talk to each other between each game and take it from there,” said Feldman. “Against Ankeny there was a couple disagreements, but ultimately it comes down to who called it so you have to move onto the next point. There’s no referees so you can’t really do anything about. You have to switch your mindset and move onto the next.

“Basically we just knew that we had that drive and we really wanted that ticket to state, and we knew that we beat Ankeny before and that we could do it again. We just had to regroup and do our best.”

In a rematch with Waterloo West’s Christensen and Begic in the finals, Feldman and Sandvick were defeated 6-1, 6-3. The Wahawk pair placed fourth at state doubles a year ago after beating Feldman and Downs 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the regional finals.

“At the beginning of the day when we got the schedule, we knew we could do this,” Sandvick said. “We knew right away that Ankeny was going to be the big one that we had to beat to get to state, so it was mentally preparing ourselves for that match and using the one before that as a little bit of practice.”

It all worked out in the end for Feldman and Sandvick, who will take a 9-3 record together to state in 17 days.

The rest of the Bobcat regional participants had a tougher day on their home court.

Marshalltown’s No. 2 doubles team of Kate Hauser and Lily Zahnd won their first-round match over Emma Stahlberg and Aleena Wittenburg of Cedar Rapids Prairie, 6-2, 6-3, but their day ended in the quarterfinals against Ottumwa’s Nellie Morgan and Jordan Lee, 7-5, 6-4.

Morgan and Lee were ousted in the semifinals by Christensen and Begic, 6-0, 6-0, and Ankeny’s Francel and Schmitz defeated them in the third-place contest, 6-3, 7-5.

The fourth-seeded Ottumwa pair was one of the two doubles teams to pick off Feldman and Sandvick during the regular season, and on Monday they eliminated the other Bobcat duo.

Hauser and Zahnd used a big surge in their second set against Ottumwa to get back into the match, but the Bulldogs pushed past them in the end.

In singles play, Ankeny’s Kira Smith cruised to the regional championship, beating Waterloo West’s Janet Toe 6-0, 6-0 in the finals. Smith won all three of her matches 6-0, 6-0.

Marshalltown’s Reese Jensen and Ellie Downs both were defeated in their first-round matches. Jensen fell 7-5, 6-4 to Ottumwa’s Madalynn Sertterh, while Downs was ousted 6-1, 6-2 by Ankeny’s Satviki Gorrela.

Jensen lost a three-set heartbreaker to Sertterh during their regular-season match as well, 7-6 (10-8), 6-7 (5-7), (10-8).

The 10th-ranked Bobcats will resume play in the team arena on May 20. After going 12-0 during the regular season, MHS received a first-round bye in 2A Region 2 play and will face either Council Bluffs Jefferson or Council Bluffs Lincoln in a 9 a.m. pairing at Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines. The regional finals match follows.

“After having success last year, I knew our team would be just as good this year,” said Fiscus. “We just kinda reloaded with different players, and thankfully it came out that we were better than we were last year. We have yet to lose and we’re still going.”