Tiger tennis struggles at Pittsburg

PITTSBURG -- Fort Scott High School's young tennis team struggled in a pool-play tournament at Pittsburg here Thursday. The four entries won only three matches among them, each in fifth-place matches.

The first two matches for each Tiger entrant were in pool play. Three of the four fifth-place matches were against Columbus entrants.

Raifen Cruse, who had been performing well since moving to No. 1 singles, was 0-3 here and fell to 8-9 on the season. He lost his first pool match to Colby Works of Iola, 8-1, and the second to Logan Benham of Pittsburg, 8-0. Mac Jameson of Columbus won the fifth-place match, 8-5.

Vandaro Chit moved to No. 2 singles for the tournament. He lost to Iola's Isaiah Fawson, 8-2, and Pittsburg's Adrian McAfee, 8-1, in pool play. He faced Robbie Gibbs of Labettte County in the fifth-place match and won 8-6.

Quinton Parsons and Alex Gorman (3-10) lost a close first-round match in No. 1 doubles, 8-6, to Iola's Mason Key and Rhett Allen. In their second match, they fell to Pittsburg's Micah Hashman/Nick Powers in straight sets. In the fifth-place match, they posted a straight-set win over Columbus' Nefty Valle and Pete Westervelt.

Elijah Wright and Joe Adams (4-10) returned to the varsity lineup in No. 2 doubles. They lost to Tyler Holloway/Lynn Thomas of Iola, 8-3, and Zac Dee/Dante Menghini of Pittsburg, 8-1. They defeated Aaron McCoach/Zane Sweetin of Columbus for fifth place, 8-4.

"Overall, we just did not play very well in this tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "We let several matches get away that shouldn't have. Several players played well at times, but we need to play with more consistency and need to play with more intensity in some positions."

The Tigers play Tuesday at the Labette County Invitational at Parsons. Play will begin at 3 p.m.