FSHS varsity tennis opens season

PARSONS, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's varsity tennis team opened its season Thursday at a five-team round-robin tournament. The Tigers swept Coffeyville but lost their other three duals to Pittsburg, Independence and Parsons.

"This was a good opening match," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "It gave us the opportunity to see where we are now and what we need to do to continue to improve. We played some good tennis at times, but still need to work on improving our consistency and at times our intensity, but the girls gave a really strong effort."

The best record of the day belonged to the Tigers' No. 1 doubles team of Michelle Buntain and Corina Harrison, who went 2-2 and finished third. They won a tie-breaker against Pittsburg's Sammie Highfield/Kacey Sinclari, 8-7 (7-5) and won by injury default over Coffeyville's Katie Honas/Scarlet Manley. They lost to Indy's Lexy Mangan/Molly Mangan and Parsons' Kiralyn Mosier/Lindsay Ong by 8-1 scores.

"They started out very well against Pittsburg building an early lead, then Pittsburg came back and the match went to a tiebreaker," Barr said. " In the tiebreaker, Pittsburg jumped off to a 5-1 lead, but Michelle and Corina showed a lot of determination coming back and winning six straight points to take the tiebreaker. They played some good tennis in their other two matches but were just facing two very strong teams. But hopefully they will learn from playing against those teams and see what we want to work toward."

Fort Scott's No. 2 doubles team of Courtney Crain and Hannah Messer were 1-3 on the day. They defeated Coffeyville's Haley Smith/Racheal Gillman 8-5. They lost to Rashell Hall/Robin Brummit of Pittsburg, 8-4; Kayla Steinle/Cali Nutt of Independence, 8-0; and Bailey Riggin/Bree Rogers of Parsons, 8-2.

"Courtney and Hannah started out playing pretty well at times against Pittsburg, but a few errors and a few key shots by Pittsburg turned that match in Pittsburg's favor," Barr said. "They played some good tennis at times in the losses to Indy and Parsons. They made some errors against Coffeyville but were able to play good enough tennis to come away with the win. These two did a nice job today, Hannah is only a second year player and Courtney is just a freshman."

Kalia Dancy was 1-3 in No. 1 singles with her victory coming by an 8-2 score over Jordan Hynes of Coffeyville. She lost to Chapril Stewart of Pittsburg, 8-3; Lexi Dent of Independence, 8-5; and Sarah Ong of Parsons, 8-0.

"Kalia fell behind in both of her first two matches but then rallied back and started playing better tennis in both," Barr said. "Against Indy she made a nice comeback from 1-5 before falling 8-5. In her final match against Coffeyville she was in control throughout the match playing some very solid tennis."

Taylor Bailey was also 1-3 as she played No. 2 singles. She beat Callie McAskill of Coffeyville, 8-5 and lost to Pittsburg's Ashton Born, 8-4, Indy's Taylor Mason, 8-2, and Parsons' Amy Shaw 8-0.

"Taylor started out playing very well against Pittsburg but Born rallied back and pulled away in the later part of the match," Barr said. "Taylor played some solid tennis at times, then had times where she struggled with her game at times. She is getting closer and closer to putting it all together and having a really solid season for us."

The Tigers will return here Thursday for the Labette County Tournament. They will see Pittsburg and Coffeyville again while facing LCHS and Chanute for the first time.