FSHS tennis plays at Independence

INDEPENDENCE -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team flexed its lineup during a non-medal meet here Friday, the make-up of an event rained out here Thursday.

"We shuffled our lineup around a little in these matches as we are still trying to determine our most effective lineup," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "This was a good test for us at this point in the season facing four teams all with some good quality players."

The best day was probably turned in by the No. 2 doubles teams as both combinations won at least one match.

Colton Grillott played in all four of those matches. He and Gabe Quick were 2-0, beating Arkansas City's David Boxman/Jordan Butler, 8-6, and Labette County's Joel Merritt/Conner Traxson, 8-0.

When Grillott was paired with Brian Gorman, the results were one win and one loss. They beat Independence's Austin Schroeder/Andrew Payne, 8-2, and lost to Parsons' Parker Robertson/John Paul Hurley, 8-1.

"Colton and Brian played very well and had a great win against a good No. 2 team from Indy," Barr noted.

Dustin Willard played all four No. 1 doubles matches, two with Quick and two with Josh Grant.

With Grant, the result was 1-1 with an 8-1 win over Labette County's Bret heady and Joe Shallington and an 8-3 loss to Ark City's Travis Bailey and Michael Lahm.

The Willard-Quick combo was 0-2. They lost to Indy's Shane Ferguson/Omar Elshabassy, 8-0, and Parsons' Jason Alexander/Ryan Nush, 8-1.

Grant and Gorman also rotated in No. 1 singles. Gorman lost to Ark City's John Rohr, 8-3, and Labette County's David Warren, 8-2. Grant lost to Independece's Dan Porter, one of state's better players, 8-0, and Parsons' Cody Williamson, 8-4.

Ben Bristley played all four No. 2 singles matches. He was 1-3 with a win over Alex Behrens of Arkansas City by an 8-4 score. He lost to Indy's Mason Posch, 8-4, LC's Joe Garrett, 8-5, and Parsons' Alex Smith, 8-4.

"Brian and Josh played pretty well, but just had the bad luck of facing players who were playing very well today," Barr said. "Ben, although he only went 1-3, was in all of his matches and with a little more experience should narrow the gap against these players as the season goes. Ben has made a big jump from being a JV player last season to a varsity spot this year and continues to do a good job."

Independence and Parsons tied for top honors in the tournament with 13 points each. Arkansas City was second with seven followed by the Tigers with five and LCHS with two.

"It's early and we still have things that we must improve on to be more successful, one being more effective when we serve and holding serve more often," Barr said. "This is an area we must improve in and if we do, we should be much more successful. We are staying in matches now because we are breaking serve, if we can hold our serve, we should be able to turn more of those losses into wins."

The Tigers travel to Spring Hill today to see some different competition. They will go to a tournament in Pittsburg on Thursday.