Coach sees encouraging signs despite struggles

INDEPENDENCE -- Although an inexperienced Fort Scott High School tennis team had its share of struggles Thursday at Independence, head coach Lynn Barr saw his players working to use what they have been working on in practice in a five-team round-robin tournament.

Arkansas City beat out Indy for the team title with Parsons third, Labette County fourth and Fort Scott at the rear. Barr held some varsity players out to keep them from exceeding KSHSAA limits on days of competition. Several first-year players filled spots in the lineup.

"Overall I was pleased with the way all of the first year players competed yesterday," Barr said. "I'm seeing signs of improvement with Jacob (Bailey), Vandaro (Chit) and Levi (Reichard) from their first matches.

"Because we had to play in two sites on Tuesday at Fort Scott, I was unable to see Ryan (Harper) and Quinton (Parsons) play on Tuesday, but saw them trying to do things yesterday that we have worked on. All five of these players are showing improvement and that is all we can ask, is to keep working and keep improving."

Gage Addington was the only Tiger who won a match and he also dealt with some inexperience. He played doubles all of last season and is learning that singles play requires a different approach.

"Gage faced some very strong competition today," Barr said. "In his first match against Ark City, he was rushing and trying to do too much too quickly. He got a better rhythm in the second match against Indy, but then against LCHS had trouble again getting into any kind of rhythm

"In the final match against Parsons, he settled in and played a good solid match, playing aggressively when the opportunity arose and playing more consistently when he was in a defensive position. This is something Gage will have to get used to after spending three years playing doubles where you are pretty much in attack mode all the time."

Playing No. 1 singles, Addington lost to Berett Hollis of Ark City, 8-1, Zack Schroeder of Independence, 8-3, and Caleb Mathes of Labette County, 8-3. He defeated Parsons' Paul Juesten, 8-3.

Bailey was 0-4 in No. 2 singles. He lost to Ark City's Alex Espino, Indy's Zach Stacy and Parsons' Zach Larson by 8-0 scores. He took Labette County's Robbie Gibbs to a tie-breaker before falling, 8-7 (7-3).

Harper and Parsons played No. 1 doubles. They lost to Nick Perry/Toby Beeman of Ark City and Dylan Waugh/Caleb Webster of LCHS by 8-1 scores and to Pat Hardy/Lane Schicke of Indy and Ross Benavides/Bobby Ho of Parsons, 8-0.

Chit and Reichard, in No. 2 doubles, lost all four matches 8-0. Their opponents were Levi Martinez/Hunter Fullhart of Ark City, Will Schabel/Drake King of Indy, Jalynn Lawrie/Joel Rice of Indy, who were filling in for LCHS, and Matt Mosier/Andres Jarrett of Parsons.