Day one of the boys high school state tennis tournament was not a good one for the Linn-Mar doubles team of Tyler McCann and Brady Anderson.

It was good, though, for Kennedy's Riley Galbraith, who remains the only Metro player still in the chase for a title.

The top-seeded doubles team of Tyler McCann and Anderson survived a scare in their first match Friday, but lost the second for their first defeat of the season.

“I played horrible,” McCann said after the 6-4, 6-3 loss to Tommy Pitcher and Alex Qin of Ames. “That’s all I can say.

“Brady played really well, and I just didn’t show up. I don’t know why. No excuses. But it’s too bad it had to be today that I didn’t play well.”

The senior/sophomore duo entered the tournament with a 15-0 record and had won the district title whipping by Tyler’s younger brother Trevor and Linn-Mar teammate John Kuster.

The older McCann finished third in doubles last year with Gavin Young and sixth in 2010 with Brady’s older brother Mitch, who is in the state tournament this year as a Washington senior.

Though unseeded in tournament, Qin and Pitcher have been Ames’ No. 1 doubles team this season. The pair was runnerup in its district to teammates Calvin Song and Victor Wang, who were second in the state doubles last spring.

“They’re really good players and definitely the better team today,” Brady Anderson said.  “As a team, Tyler and I have played a lot better. We’d win a game or two, but they’d come right back. We never did get any momentum.”

It was a contrast to their opening match when they came on like a freight train against Washington’s Mitch Blades and Reid Rossberger after being on the brink of a lopsided loss. The Warriors’ unseeded No. 2 doubles team started out like a house afire, taking the first set 6-3 leading the second 4-1.

The mercurial Blades was blazing, even returning a deep lob with a shot between his legs that still zinged over the net.  He tried to slam the return, missed and then double-faulted to lose the game.

It was all downhill from there.

McCann and Anderson stormed back to take the set 7-5 and then coasted 6-1 for the win.

“We were lucky to advance,” McCann said. “We came out really soft. And they played extremely well at the start.”

Anderson said he and his partner had trouble getting a racket on Blades’ laser-like serves.

“For us to get back in it, we needed them to give us a couple of points,” he said. “When they started missing some shots, we picked up the momentum.”

The Washington pair admitted to suffering a meltdown.

“We had everything going, and then we choked big time,” Blades said. “My serve just stopped, and we started going for too much.

“We just shut down, and they turned it on. But the fact is, we choked.”

Teammate Rossberger said the couldn’t handle the success they were having over the tournament’s top seed.

“The first set, we were fantastic,” he said. “We were on fire. But we lost a couple of points and sort of tanked after that.

“We got too tentative instead of being aggressive. They had the will to win. We were playing not to lose. So we lost.”

The Washington duo lost their next match, as well, in the consolation bracket.

McCann and Anderson, however, bounced back to defeat the Warriors' Clayton Hoyt and Mitch Anderson in a tiebreaker to advance to Saturday morning’s consolation bracket semifinals.

Hoyt and Mitch Anderson, seeded No. 3, lost their opening match but rebounded in their second before being eliminated by Linn-Mar’s McCann and Brady Anderson.

Linn-Mar’s No. 2 doubles team of Trevor McCann and John Kuster dropped their opening match opening match, won their second, then lost again.

Friday’s matches started at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in the morning but were halted by rain.

The singles competition moved indoors to Coe College.  Doubles play was shifted inside at Westfield Tennis Center, resumed later back at Vets but was concluded at Westfield after a second bout of rain.

The tournament concludes Saturday at Vets. Consolation semifinals are scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., championship consolations at 10 a.m.

CLASS 2A BOYS STATE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
At Veterans Memorial Tennis Center

Friday

Singles

First Round
Naveen Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Nick Johnson (Hempstead), 6-0, 7-6(2)
Ryan Peterson (WDM Valley) def. Chris Habermann (SC North), 6-1, 6-4
CJ Ray (Ottumwa) def. Roy Ju (Cedar Falls), 6-2, 6-1
Alex Huang (Ames0 def. AJ Smith (Pleasant Valley), 6-0, 6-1
Blake Oetting (IC West) def. Andrew Ellis (Ames), 6-3, 6-3
Will Hemminger (DM Roosevelt) def. Alex Crowl (CB Abe Lincoln), 6-2, 7-5
Bobbie Slavens (Bettendorf) def. Sead Sarkic (Waterloo West), 6-1, 6-1
Riley Galbraith (CR Kennedy) def. Anders Jensen (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-2

Second Round
Nath (DM Roosevelt) def. Peterson (WDM Valley), 6-3, 6-2
Huang (Ames) def. Ray (Ottumwa), 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Hemminger (DM Roosevelt) def. Oetting (IC West), 6-1, 6-2
Galbraith (CR Kennedy) def. Slavens (Bettendorf), 6-2, 6-0

Consolation

First Round
Ellis (Ames) def. Crowl (CB Abe Lincoln), 6-4, 6-3
Jensen (WDM Valley) def. Sarkic (Waterloo West), WD (pc)
Johnson (Hempstead) def. Habermann (SC North), 6-0, 6-0
Ju (Cedar Falls) def. Smith (Pleasant Valley), 6-3, 6-2

Second Round
Peterson (WDM Valley) def. Ellis (Ames), Injury default
Jensen (WDM Valley) def. Ray (Ottumwa), 6-2, 6-4
Oetting (IC West) def. Johnson (Hempstead), 6-2, 6-1
Ju (Cedar Falls) def. Slavens (Bettendorf), 6-2, 6-1


Doubles

First Round
B.Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. M.Blades/R.Rossberger (CR Washington), 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
A.Qin/T.Pitcher (Ames) def. M.Schumacher/R.Schroeder (Clinton), 6-3, 6-1
T.Maigaard/M.McCoy (WDM Valley) def. B.Murman/A.Stover (Fort Dodge), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
K.Appel/A.Dellos (IC West) def. C.Debner/T.VanDePol (Ankeny), 6-1, 6-2
A.Boldt/K.Wenzel (IC West) def. M.Anderson/C.Hoyt (CR Washington), 6-3, 7-5
P.Kruzan/D.Hays (Waukee) def. D.Graves/J.T.Tripp (SC West), 6-0, 6-0
M.Petersen/L.Benna (Ankeny) def. Tr.McCann/J.Kuster (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-1
C.Song/V.Wang (Ames) def. J.Stewart/S.Kardell (Pleasant Valley), 6-2, 6-4

Quarterfinals
Qin/Pitcher (Ames) def. Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-3
Appel/Dellos (IC West) def. Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley), 6-1, 6-2
Boldt/Wenzel (IC West) def. Kruzan/Hays (Waukee), 6-1, 6-1
Song/Wang (Ames) def. Petersen/Benna (Ankeny), 6-2, 6-4

Consolation Bracket

First Round
Anderson/Hoyt (CR Washington) def. Graves/Tripp (SC West), 6-1, 6-1
Tr.McCann/Kuster (Linn-Mar) def. Stewart/Kardell (Pleasant Valley), 6-1, 3-6, 1(5)
Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton) def. Blades/Rossberger (CR Washington), 6-0, 6-4
Murman/Stover (Fort Dodge) def. Debner/VanDePol (Ankeny), 6-3, 1-6, 1(7)

Second Round
Anderson/Ty.McCann (Linn-Mar) def. Anderson/Hoyt (CR Washington), 6-4, 3-6, 1(6)
Maigaard/McCoy (WDM Valley) def. Tr.McCann/Kuster (Linn-Mar), 6-4, 6-4
Schumacher/Schroeder (Clinton) def. Kruzan/Hays (Waukee), 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 1(5)
Petersen/Benna (Ankeny) def. Murman/Stover (Fort Dodge), 6-1, 6-1