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No. 1 singles, doubles take No. 1 spots in tourney
Fort Scott High School's tennis team won the team title and two divisions of its home varsity invitational Tuesday.
The Tigers won the team title with 10 points. Independence won a tie-breaker over Labette County for second place after both finished with 7 points. Columbus brought up the rear, failing to score a point.
"I was really proud of the way our girls came out and competed," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "We don't get to play at home very often and the girls all really responded well to the chance to play here playing some of their best tennis of the year."
Jennifer Harrison won the No. 1 singles pool with a perfect 3-0 mark. She started by shutting out Kelci Atkinson of Columbus. She also defeated Sami Brown of Labette County, 8-5, and Caringtyn Julian of Independence, 8-1, to improve to 10-7 for the season. She has won five of her last six matches.
"Jennifer played without a doubt her best tennis of the season," Barr said. "She hit the ball much better today, made good decisions as far as shot selection and eliminated many of the errors that have been hurting her for much of the season."
Kenna Savage and Courtney Crain were unbeaten in No. 1 doubles. They began with a sweep of Columbus' Kaley Murillo/Abby Zahm. Then they beat Labette County's Paige Smith/Haley Page, 8-2, and Indy's Anna Miller/Alex Keller, 8-4. They are 12-4 on the season and have won six straight matches.
"Just the way you want to see two seniors play in their final home match of their career," Barr said. "They hit the ball well, played good solid doubles forcing quite a few errors and playing great defense when they needed to."
Kandice Rost (4-10) finished in a three-way tie in No. 1 singles. The first tie-breaker went to Indy's Kaylee Bryant, who won 23 games. Rost and LC's Selena Perez each won 19 games, so the tie was broken with games lost. Rose got the nod by losing fewer games, 11 to 15.
Rost blanked Columbus' Lexi Murdock in her opening match, downed Perez, 8-3, and lost to Bryant, 8-3.
"Kandice had a good, solid tournament for us," Barr said. "This is a girl who goes out and plays hard and gives us a good effort every tournament. I am very happy for her to get a couple in the win column after playing so hard."
Char Hutchison and Emmah Reeves (5-9) were second in No. 2 doubles. In the first round, they defeated teammates Addison Cunningham and Emily Adams, who were put into the pool because Columbus did not have a No. 2 doubles team, by an 8-3 score. They lost to Jackie Wertz/Patricia Stevenson of Labette County, 8-5, but beat Indy's Sagan Shire/Emily Wilson in a tie-breaker 8-7 (3).
The Fort Scott, LCHS and Indy teams all tied for first. Independence won the tie-breaker on wins with 23. Hutchison and Reeves won 21 games and LCHS won 20.
Cunningham and Adams lost to Shire/Wilson, 8-1, and Wertz/Stevenson, 8-0.
The Tigers play in Pittsburg this afternoon. Because the courts at Pittsburg State University have been demolished to make way for a fin arts center, the matches will be played at Four Oaks, which is along the U.S. 69 bypass.