Cardinal tennis loses twice at Marshalltown

MARSHALLTOWN — A rain delay forced Newton’s boys tennis team to spend eight hours in Marshalltown on Friday.

The Cardinals didn’t take the court until more than an hour after scheduled and the Bobcats and Mason City handed Newton a pair of 11-0 losses.

“Marshalltown is a very good team and we came out a little sluggish against them,” Newton boy tennis coach Jared Gerber said. “We’re still trying to figure out the best combinations of our doubles lineup so we mixed some things up today.

“Overall, it was a long day. We were at the Marshalltown courts for more than eight hours and by the end of the of night, our players were all very tired and ready to head home.”

Blake Baumgartner played in the No. 1 singles slot against Marshalltown and Mason City. He lost his first match 6-1, 6-2 to Marshalltown’s Kevin Strand before going down 6-0, 6-3 to Mason City’s James Matthews in the second match.

The rest of the varsity order was Trent Hamand, Thomas Hodnett, John Valtman, William Muckler and Landon Heisdorffer.

Hamand lost twice on the day, falling 6-1, 6-0 to Marshalltown’s Jason Strand and 7-6 (3), 6-3 to Mason City’s Caden Rodning.

Hodnett was defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Marshalltown’s Nic Price and lost 7-6 (6), 6-2 to Mason City’s Reed Kruger.

“In the Mason City match, there were more close matches,” Gerber said. “We lost in two first-set tiebreaks on courts two and three with Trent and Thomas. They both really stepped up their game and had chances to win that first set but missed a few crucial shots.”

Marshalltown’s Ethan Benscoter defeated Valtman 6-1, 6-0 and Mason City’s Justin Varahmadi downed Valtman 6-1, 6-2.

Muckler and Heisdorffer were defeated 6-1, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-0 in their matches against Marshalltown. They both lost 6-1, 6-1 to their Mason City opponents.

Marshalltown won each doubles match against Newton in straight sets. And the Cardinals only won more than one game in three of the 10 sets.

“We made improvements on lots of the areas we worked on this week in practice, which was great to see,” Gerber said. “We’ll have to improve on our grit to win more of the important points in the match.”

Newton fared better in doubles against Mason City. The Mohawks won all five matches in straight sets, but Baumgartner and Hamand won four games in the second set at No. 1 doubles.

Hodnett and Valtman pushed Reed Kruger and Yarahmadi to 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles and Landon Rae and Seth Adams lost 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5 doubles.

“The No. 2 doubles team of Valtman and Hodnett really played well and challenged their opponents,” Gerber said. “Our No. 5 doubles team of Landon Rae and Seth Adams also played well and had leads in both sets against Mason City.”